I'll Remember Lost Memory and Lightening
by nihongoneko
Summary: Akane was struck by lightening and lost her memory. But other than that, she’s the picture of perfect health- except that now she seems to be able to control, make, and channel lightening- not to be seen for several chapters though. RanmaxAkane
1. Waking Up To Rain and No Memory

Nihogoneko

Akane fanfic- I'll Remember; Lost Memory and Lightening (I call it an Akane fanfic because it revolves around Akane Tendo.)

Summary: A girl wakes up in a forest clearing, with no idea who she is. She walks to the nearest town, and no one recognizes her. But she stays there and starts to build a life there as she searches for herself. But there's more than one thing not right about her- 1) she seems to have superhuman reflexes and strength, and 2) she seems to be able to make and control lightening.

Storyline: Akane was struck by lightening and lost her memory.

This story takes place after the end of the Ranma 1/2 series, because I can't remember when ppl say 'oh, this is after this event or that event' because for the life of me I can't remember the events of the Ranma story- there's too many of them! So, for others that also have this problem, I'm making it at the end of the series, after everything has happened. Also, the way I'm having Ranma and Akane act together, they act more mature about their thoughts and feelings and less childish (like hitting him on the head with a mallet just because she's angry and putting his foot in his mouth without even thinking about what he's going to say first).

Story:

Chapter one- Waking Up To Rain and No Memory

She woke with the sensation of rain falling against her cheek and the feeling that she'd been sleeping for a while. Refreshed, if not quite wet, she sat up, noting her surroundings as she stretched.

Where was she?

The trees didn't look familiar, or the clearing, and she didn't remember coming here. But here she was, with no memory of how.

What day was it?

She realized that she didn't know that either. Surprised by that thought, she searched her memory for the name of the town she left, her home, her family and if they were worried, and became concerned when she drew a blank for all four.

Okay, she told herself, let's start small. My name is...

Her mind stayed blank. Feeling the beginnings of panic, she fought to remain calm.

Okay, breathe. Let's try something else. When was I born? What year is it? What are my parents' names? Do I have siblings?

Blank.

Oh, no, she thought. No no no no no. I've forgotten who I am. I've forgotten... everything...

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ending commentary: short, but I tried to make it a nice catalyst for what's to come. I would be grateful to get your input and opinions and would take all into consideration.


	2. Finding the Way Home&The Town

Nihogoneko

Akane fanfic- I'll Remember; Lost Memory and Lightening (I call it an Akane fanfic because it revolves around Akane Tendo.)

Summary: A girl wakes up in a forest clearing, with no idea who she is. She walks to the nearest town, and no one recognizes her. But she stays there and starts to build a life there as she searches for herself. But there's more than one thing not right about her- 1) she seems to have superhuman reflexes and strength, and 2) she seems to be able to make and control lightening.

Storyline: Akane was struck by lightening and lost her memory. But other than that, she's the picture of perfect health- except that now she seems to be able to control, make, and channel lightening.

Story:

Chapter Two- Finding the Way Home

Previously in chapters...  
_  
Oh, no, she thought. No no no no no. I've forgotten who I am. I've forgotten... everything._

Now continuing the story...

The girl spent several sad moments in shock before she remembered that it was raining. Deciding that she couldn't spend all day- or was it night? - in the forest, on the cold, wet ground, she decided to look for the nearest town. Maybe they'd be friendly and offer hospitality. Or maybe they were all vicious cannibals. Or maybe... they would recognize her.

So she walked, and walked, and walked. For some reason, though, she was brain tired, her body seemed... energized. She walked for a long time and did not tire.

_Well_, the girl thought, _maybe I'm a runner or something. I guess that's better than being a lazy bum. At least I get... got exercise. Or I live in the mountains. Hmm..._

After awhile, the rain stopped, and, at about the same time, the girl reached the end of the forest. The sun came out of the clouds and shone over the girl, and, beyond her, a town. She smiled. It was beautiful. And, maybe, she was home.

end chapter two

(I know that this was a EXTREMELY short chapter, but never fear- I added another one today to make up for it. ) )

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Chapter Three- The Town

Previously in chapters...

_After awhile, the rain stopped, and, at about the same time, the girl reached the end of the forest. The sun came out of the clouds and shone over the girl, and, beyond her, a town. She smiled. It was beautiful. And, maybe, she was home._

Now continuing the story...

When she reached the town, she didn't recognize anything. She couldn't ever remember walking down the sidewalks, or talking to any of the people she saw. But she understood that. She seemed to have forgotten everything, even her own name and age. But the thing was, no one seemed to remember her either. No one looked at her as if they knew her. In fact, the only ones who _did_ look at her took one look at her face and spent the rest of their time looking at her clothes. Well, she _was_ pretty dirty. But she had no place to clean up, and she had no money for the bathhouse that she saw open a little while back.

It seemed that while she didn't remember anything about herself, she _did_ remember about the things around her- like food and clothes, and she understood the concept of money and a home- which, at the moment, she was fresh out of everything. How was she going to survive if she had no place to stay?

As she continued walking, she got a feeling of unease, and a tingling at the back of her neck. The girl looked back as discreetly as she could and realized that she was being followed. It was a man, around 24 or so, maybe. He didn't look friendly.

For some reason, thought, the girl wasn't scared. She realized that she felt no fear about this possible threat, none at all, and she hoped that it hadn't fled along with her memory. It would be really bad if that was true, because she knew that it could cause her to do something stupid. What she didn't want to do was to face a mugger, burglar, or worse, an attacker, and find out that she had a reason to be afraid. What if he carried a knife, or a gun?

As the girl continued to walk, she realized another thing. She did not look like she had any money or possessions. Why would a man be following her?

Then it hit her. She looked homeless, helpless, poor and alone. She had nothing of value. All she had was the dirty clothes on her back. And all that she had besides herself was her body. So... what if he wanted to _rape _her?

Aware of the man still following her, she tried hard not to appear scared. The last thing she wanted was to draw even _more_ attention to herself. If she appeared scared, then he might jump her.

Suddenly, the tingling in the back of her neck increased, and her brain shouted for her to run. She heard hurried footsteps behind her. They were too heavy to be female. Immediately, she knew that it was the man who had been following her. He was _running_.

Although her brain screamed at her to run too, her body turned to face the man. She saw him coming closer and closer...

And he passed right by her in a rush. The girl sighed to herself in relief. Then she heard a scream.

\"_Help_! I've been _robbed_!!"

The girl realized that the man wasn't after her at all. He was just stealing. But now he had stolen an old womans' purse. And from the sound of it, he had stolen a lot of money.

Before she even realized what she was doing, the girl had rushed off after the robber. And she realized one thing- she was gaining on him pretty quickly. It was odd, considering that he was a grown man and she was only a teen- well, according to the reflection she had seen in one of the shop mirrors, that is.

In almost no time, she had caught up to him and was close to passing the man. He seemed too caught up in running away to notice her beside him, and the girl wondered how long his ignorance would last. She needed a way to stop him.

Almost as suddenly as she had thought this, her body seemed to take action on its own. She ran ahead of him, and her leg shot out, hitting his ankle and tripping him.

As he fell, she grabbed his arm and, as she skid to a stop, she twisted his body in a judo-like one-handed flip onto his back. His body hit the ground. He tried to get up, so she grabbed his arm again and twisted it behind his back, applying enough pressure to keep him on his knees, bent over and harmless.

Suddenly, the girl came back to her senses, with the robber apprehended in her hands. She almost jumped back in suprise, but stopped herself at the last moment. If he got away, after she had just- wow- _caught_ him, she wasn't sure that she could catch him again.

"Thank you so much, Miss. He had my weekly check in there."

It was the woman that he had robbed.

"Oh... um, you're welcome." she replied. A police officer came up to her to take the criminal away and she was able to stand up.

"I want to show you my thanks." the woman continued. "Is there anythingthat I could do to repay you?"

The girl looked at the robber, and then at herself. She really was a mess now. "Umnnn... could you possible point me in the direction of the police building? I have to report a missing person."

"Oh, how horrible!" the woman replied, looking symapthetically at her. "You poor thing, no wonder you're so dirty! You must have been looking all over! Who did you lose?"

"Umnnn..." she was really embarrassed to admit her trouble to the nice old lady. "... me. I'm lost. And I have no clue how to get home."

"Poor dear..." the woman clucked, her worry turning into caring sympathy. "Where do you live? Maybe it's nearby and I can point you in the right direction."

"I...I don't...remember..." she trailed off, trying to think, even though she knew by now that it was a fruitless attempt. She had no memory, not even flashes of images or feelings of her life. It was like she was a new person. She was puzzled, but she wasn't sad. How could she be, if she had no clue what her life had been like? You can't feel for something that you don't remember. That made her a little sad. The fact that she might never know what she had had.

"Oh!!! Child...!!!" the woman's horrified voice drifted back to her through her haze. "You have... amnesia...?" then she calmed down snd her voice became kind. "Oh, don't worry child. You've helped me so much, come stay with me."

end chapter three

thank you for reading this far. and thank you everyone who has reviewed up to this point. I appreciate it very much. continue to review, and I might take some suggestions on what to add to my chapters. ) any comments are welcome if you think that I'm doing something wrong. oh, and because I forgot to put a disclaimer on the first chapter, just so you know, I own neither Akane, Ranma, or the gang or the manga or anime or any other of Rumiko Takahashi's work. thank you. this has been nihogoneko, over and out. see you next chapter!!!


	3. What Is Your Name?

Nihogoneko

Akane fanfic- I'll Remember; Lost Memory and Lightening (I call it an Akane fanfic because it revolves around Akane Tendo.)

Disclaimer: I do not own Akane, Ranma, or any of the other Rumiko Takahashi characters from Ranma 1/2, nor do I own the storyline. Sadly, I'm just not that good.

Summary: A girl wakes up in a forest clearing, with no idea who she is. She walks to the nearest town, and no one recognizes her. But she stays there and starts to build a life there as she searches for herself. But there's more than one thing not right about her- 1) she seems to have superhuman reflexes and strength, and 2) she seems to be able to make and control lightening.

Storyline: Akane was struck by lightening and lost her memory. But other than that, she's the picture of perfect health- except that now she seems to be able to control, make, and channel lightening.

Story:

Chapter Four- What Is Your Name?

Previously in chapters...

_"Oh!!! Child...!!!" the woman's horrified voice drifted back to her through her haze. "You have... amnesia...?" then she calmed down and her voice became kind. "Oh, don't worry child. You've helped me so much, come stay with me."_

Now continuing the story...

She followed the nice old lady home, who introduced herself as Mrs.Smithy. When Mrs. Smithy had asked her her name in return, and she didn't answer right away, the lady was nice enough to change the topic and save her from getting depressed about her lost past.

"So...Where was it you learned all that stuff?" Mrs. Smithy asked suddenly.

"Stuff...?" Had she done something odd?

"All those moves. Are you a martial artist or something?"

_Oh._ Mrs. Smithy was talking about how she had caught the purse-snatcher.

"..." the girl tried to think, but she drew up another blank, just like every other time she tried to remember anything past since before she woke up in the forest. It was still so depressing.

"Ah... It's okay if you don't want to tell me anything personal. I understand." Mrs. Smithy said, waving her hands in a peaceful gesture, as if she could wave away her mistake and make the girl magically feel better. Akane smiled at her effort, despite still feeling a bit depressed. It was nice to know that she had a friend in all this.

"No... That's not it. I'm sorry I can't tell you anything. But it's not that I don't want to. I... don't remember anything about myself to tell. I woke up in a forest, and then I came here. That's all I really know."

"Oh, you poor sweetie. So you don't even know your name?"

"...No. I don't even know where I live."

"..." Mrs. Smithy looked ahead at the sky, lost in thought for a minute, before turning back to her with a smile.

"Well, how's this? I own an apartment complex near here, in this town.Since you were so nice as to help me out back there, I could give you a room and board."

The girl waved her hand frantically, embarrassed. "Oh, no. I couldn't accept something like that. That'd be too much to ask."

"Oh." Mrs. Smithy smiled again, as if pleased by her answer. "Well then, I guess I'll just have to help you find a job so you can pay me, if you feel so uncomfterable with it."

"Really? Thank you so much!" the girl smiled, and felt like she should hug Mrs. Smithy for her kindness.

"There is one thing though." Mrs. Smithy said, looking back towards the sky.

"Oh...?" she was almost afraid that Mrs. Smithy would turn back to her and say that she was joking about helping her out. As if that happened a lot to her. Being disappointed by people, she meant.

She frowned at the ground then. Where did she get that awful thought from? Was it a thought from her life before the forest? Something that she thought so often that even with her memory loss, it still popped readily in her mind? Actually, she thought. Maybe she didn't want to regain her memories if her life really was anything like that.

Mrs Smithy smiled as she turned back to the girl. "We need to call you something if you want to talk more. I don't think I want to call you 'girl' or "hey you' all my life, or yours for that matter. And if you want to go to school here so that you can keep up with everyone else while we try to find your family, you'll need a name."

"School? Really?!"

"Well, only if you want to. I know many of you kids don't like school, and I can't force you, so it'd really be up to you."

"Oh, I would! I would!"

Mrs. Smithy smiled again, pleased by her reply. "Okay, but we still need to call you something."

"A name?"

"Yes. Do you have any preferences? Anything you'd like to be called particularly?"

"..." she turned towards the town, watching the inhabitants briefly before looking towards the sky, as if searching for answers that she'd find there.

"I... don't know..."

end chapter four.

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end of chapter notations: Okay, here's the deal. I'm stuck on something and thought I'd ask for help. What should I do for Akane's name? Should I have the lady, Mrs. Smithy, name her, or should Akane think up something herself? And when either happens, should the name they choose be her real name, that they pick unknowingly, or should they make up something, or choose a name from somewhere? Give me your input, and I'll choose the one I like best. Or if ther's only one suggestion, I may choose that one. And if I can't decide, if there's more than one, we'll vote, okay? But I can't do anything until I get a suggestion, so I need at least one. After that, I'll update. :) And don't worry. I'll have Ranma and Akane's new abilities make appearances soon. ;) (And I'm underlining key parts so that those who normally don't read end notations will hopefully notice and maybe take exception and give me their suggestions as well.) Also, sorry it took so long for the update. I'll try better next time. Reviews and comments are always welcome. Flames do nothing but help me become a better writer for your reading enjoyment. :) I also apoligize for making this end of chapter notation so long.


	4. My Name Is

Memory of Rain and Lightening Chapter Five- nihogoneko- rated T (just in case)

Akane fanfic- I'll Remember; Lost Memory and Lightening (I call it an Akane fanfic because it revolves around Akane Tendo, mainly.)

Disclaimer: I do not own Akane, Ranma, or any of the other Rumiko Takahashi characters from Ranma 1/2, nor do I own the storyline. Sadly, I'm just not that good.

Summary: A girl wakes up in a forest clearing, with no idea who she is. She walks to the nearest town, and no one recognizes her. But she stays there and starts to build a life there as she searches for herself.

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Chapter Five- My Name Is...

previously in chapters...

_"A name?"_

_"Yes. Do you have any preferences? Anything you'd like to be called particularly?"_

_"..." she turned towards the town, watching the inhabitants briefly before looking towards the sky, as if searching for answers that she'd find there._

_"I... don't know..."_

now continuing with the story...

Ranma was worried. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but when he had heard about Akane's trip to a resort with some of her friends, it had sent a ominous shiver down his back. She had been gone for three days now- no big deal. Except that he hadn't been able to shake the feeling that she was in trouble. Especially after that lightening storm that had appeared so suddenly the second day after she left. It had spread through quite a few towns, including over the resort where Akane and her friends were staying. Water was not a good mix for lightening. However, Ranma knew that any mention of Akane by him over the period that she was gone would cause both his and Akane's fathers to break into tears about "How much Ranma cares about his fiancee", and "How he should go to her right now and profess his love". (See? He isn't as stupid as everyone thinks... sometimes.) So Ranma just decided to keep quiet, for now. If the feeling persisted for another day, he'd go there himself and make sure that she was okay...

By the afternoon, however, Ranmas' bad feeling had only gotten worse. It had gotten so bad, in fact, that he could think of nothing else. If he was going against someone, he'd suspect that the person was cheating somehow and playing a dirty trick on him.

He finally decided that he couldn't stand it any longer, and that he would call up the place that Akane and her friends were staying, just to make sure that nothing was really wrong at all. He went into the hallway, making sure that first all of the other household members were too busy to notice him (and doing it in a comical way too, his head looking from side to side faster than a normal person could. it didn't even occur to him to only move his eyes and look less conspicuous).

Ranma picked up the phone, hesitantly looking around one more time (which consisted of more fast head turning) before dialing the number he had memorized because all his constant worry had made him looking at the resort brocure at least fifty times.

Ranma waited, and heard the phone ring twice, then there was a click and someone answered.

"Hello, this is Heavens Hot Springs Resort. How may I help you?"

"Um... Hi. I'm calling to check up on a friend at your resort." Ranma recited the small speech he had practiced over the last three days while he was worrying about Akane and had written on half a dozen napkins and scrap papers while trying to figure out what to say.

"Hold on." Ranma heard a pause, and typing. "Okay. What's your friends' name?"

"Uh..." this was a lot easier than he had thought it would be to get in touch with Akane. "It's Akane Tendo. She's staying there with two of her friends. I just wanted to know... if I could speak to them...?" Ranma's courage was starting to fail him. He was about to hang up on the woman- What if Akane answered and she was fine? She's just laugh at him for worrying for sure- when the woman spoke into the phone again.

"One moment...Okay. I'll connect you to their line."

"Thanks." Ranma sighed into the phone, relieved and yet not. Now he could prove to himself that Akane was just fine. But he'd probably get laughed at by everyone for it. Well, at least Akane was safe. Once he heard her voice and knew for sure, he'd hang up.

There was another pause, and then more ringing.

"Hello?" It was one of Akane's friends.

"Oh, hi. Um... it's Ranma. Is... Akane... there...?" the minute the words left him mouth, Ranma wanted to take them back. Of course Akane would be there! She's staying with her friends! He mentally smacked his forehead because they'd hear it over the phone if he did it for real. See, he told himself, I can be smart sometimes. Take that, Akane!

"Oh... um, well, Ranma..." Ranma turned back to the conversation at hand. "I... Akane is... um..." the girl trailed off, sounding worried and depressed. Ranma was immediately on guard. And extremely worried.

He listened to her stutter for a for a bit, before he suddenly froze at something she finally comfessed just a bit above a whisper to him. His blood ran cold.

"Wait... repeat that again... She... what...?"

She repeated what she had said.

Ranma felt like his heart had stopped. He could feel all the blood rush from his face.

"She's... missing...?"

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The girl stood in the doorway to her new room. Mrs. Smithy had taken her silence in stride, and had told her that her name didn't matter as much as getting a roof over their heads as storm clouds approached, and told her just get herself settled in first. Though she herself had no things to bring with her to the lady's home, the elder woman had told her that she should get aquainted with her new home first, and then they would go shopping for a few changes of clothes, since she only had the clothes on her back to wear- all of which were a little worse for wear.

She heard thunder off in the distance, and remembered Mrs. Smithys' words about a storm approaching. She had walked to the window before she had even realized that she had done so, her eyes searching for something. Why was she searching? The girl shook her head, but couldn't make her eyes leave the streets as the first raindrops fell.

"Well, I guess we'll have to put off that shopping for a bit." Mrs. Smithy said as she entered the room. She spotted her by the window. "Girl?" she asked, a question, but it was like the young one didn't hear her.

She walked closer, curious, and saw the girl's eyes on the street, watching the rain hit the pavement and the people below. A habit? Maybe the girl had lost her memory, but the body does what the body will always do. Just as an amnesic drug user would still crave his drugs, even if he doesn't know why, so this girl was watching the rain, as if waiting for someone imporant to come by. Someone who was her whole world. Someone who she waited for often. She didn't even seem to be aware of what she was doing, the girl.

She saw the girl jerk, and turned watched her lean closer, She was watching a red haired boy run through the streets- Must be a foreigner, Mrs. Smithy thought- but slumped back after she had leaned over and got a closer look. Not the person she was looking for, apparently.

Suddenly, the girl seemed to realize that she has company.

"Oh, Mrs. Smithy! I guess we can't go shopping today." the girl said, turning to the older woman.

"No, I guess we can't." Mrs. Smithy replied, the words confirming to herself that the girl was indeed repeating subconscious actions without seeming to realize it. She didn't seem to even realize that she had been loooking out the window so intently, or her voice would not of sounded so normal. Was she looking for a redhead, or a boy?, Mrs. Smithy wondered.

"Well, then we'll just have to make do. I've got a shower and a change of clothes that you may use until tomorrow." she told the girl.

"Thank you." the girl smiled- a beautiful smile, Mrs. Smithy noted. She must've had many admirers back home, the old woman though sadly. A home that she may never be able to return to if her memory doesn't return. Separated from all her family and friends.

"Mrs. Smithy?... What's wrong?"

"Huh?" Mrs. Smithy snapped back to the present.

The girl wore a concerned look on her face. "You were frowning, and you looked sad. Why?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Don't bother with me." Mrs. Smithy waved her hand a bit, smiling at her. "When you're my age, you have quite a lot to think about, and not all of it is happy, I'm afraid. Don't worry." she added when the girl continued to look concerned. "I'm fine. It wasn't anything particularly concerning me. Smile your pretty smile. you're too young to worry so much, young one." Mrs. Smithy smiled as if to set an example to her. The poor girl didn't need to be any sadder than she already was. Loosing ones memory was more than enough grief, in her opinion.

The girl looked unsure, but thankfully, she dropped the subject. Mrs. Smithy watched her gaze return to the window and the outside. Water ran down the window in rivulets. Like tears, the old woman thought, next to the sad child.

"Even though it has ruined our plans, the rain really is quite lovely, isn't it?" she ventured the question almost cautiously, almost forgetting for a moment that now since her memory was gone, the rain, nor mention of anything else, could bring up any bad memories for the young girl. The girl turned back to look at her.

"For instance" Mrs. Smithy continued, hoping to cheer her up. "Look at it on the window. Like little liquid gems, I'd say.So pretty in the light." At this, the girl looked towards the rivulets, to see for herself. "They travel like many roads, like life, splitting and meeting and continuously on the move. One more drop falling from the sky can change the path of one of those little water paths, or add to it and make it travel faster." She looked at the girl, who turned to her. "Your life has taken quite a turn, if I say so myself. But don't take it as a bad thing. Perhaps your life had needed a new outlook on life, one that you could not previously see. Perhaps you had hit a standstill, and needed new direction. Or perhaps you are looking for something that you could not find with you memories. I doubt that any of this is permanent. Amnesia is odd that way. It sometimes has the habbit of changing your life for the better. And when you finally remember all you knew before, it'll be because your need for it has gone. Like a childhood story I once heard- "When you need me but do not want me, I will stay. But when you want me but do not need me, I will have to leave." Yes, I guess you could say life is like the rain."

"..." The girl remained quiet.

"Oh, it's okay. I'm not really expecting you to answer me." Mrs. Smithy said. "I just wanted to tell you that you shouldn't look at this circumstance as something bad. Be optimistic. Like I said, this may be just what you needed. Maybe you'll discover something now that you were unable to before."

"Maybe..." the girl said, as if she had something on her mind she had been thinking about for awhile. "Umn...Can I ask you something?..."

"Of course. Ask me whatever you'd like. You don't have to be shy around me."

"Until I remember my real name... can you call me Rain?... You... made me think... and though I can't place it, when I was looking out the window, I think it played an important part of my life. It may help me remember something..."

"Of course." Mrs. Smithy said with a smile. "I think that Rain is a fine name for now. And maybe you're right. If it's true, and it does play an important part of your past, hearing it so often may trigger a memory or two. Maybe at least your real name. Now, I'd love to discuss more, but my bones are old, and it's getting dark. You might want to take a shower and change for bed. I have some clothes I'll get for you. We can go to the station tomorrow if you want and report you missing. Who knows? Maybe someone'll show up. You are too young to be on your own. You must have some family looking for you."

The girl nodded, and turned back to watch the rain, which showed no side of stopping anytime soon.

"I'll go and get the clothes now and then retire to bed." Mrs. Smithy said, watching the girl as she barely nodded, her attention focused on the outside world. She was definitely use to waiting for someone to return, to come to her, the old woman thought. Mrs. Smithy turned and left the room, in search of the clothes she promised to lend the girl.

The girl now known as "Rain" watched out the window, as droplets poured down, tapping out a rythm on the sidewalk, the roofs, and any other surface they touched.It seemed so familiar. She felt like a memory was just at the tip of her brain, so close to remembering, yet it escaped her. So close, yet so far. Would she remember over time, or would she never remember? What, and who, had she forgotten? Her family, her friends. And what was so important about the rain? she just had to know.

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Ranma was packing up for his trip. Everyone in the Tendo residence, his father included, thought that he was going on a training trip while Akane was gone, which of course caused Mr. Tendo to break into tears about how Akane will return to find her fiance gone and doesn't Ranma care for his fiancee at all? and so on. While he drowned in his tears (and flooded the main room), Ranma's mind was elsewhere. He had decided that he'd find Akane on his own. He had talked to her friends. They hadn't reported her missing yet, since they believed that Akane could handle and problem that came her way, her being an accomplished martial artist and all, and they didn't want to get into trouble for it. They had told Ranma that they were hoping that Akane would just come back on her own and was just lost. But Ranma didn't believe that. Akane wasn't Ryoga, so getting back shouldn't of taken that long to do- a day at most, if she disappeared later on at night. But she hadn't returned for over a day, and if she was hurt and couldn't move...

Ranma shook his head. He couldn't think like that. He had even remembered to make sure that neither Ukyo, nor Shampoo, nor Mousse, nor Ryoga, nor Cologne or Kuno or Kodachi or anyone else aside from the Tendos and his Pop even knew that he was going to be leaving for awhile. He planned to start at night, to draw less attention to himself. Sneaking away was the Saotome special. He'd use it now.

Ranma looked out the window of his and his fathers shared room at the night sky with a sad expression. _Where are you, Akane?_ Then he shook his head and this time looked more determined. _I promise, I'll find you... Akane..._

end of chapter five.

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end of chapter notations: sorry I didn't use any of the name suggestions you guys gave me for Akane. Truth be told, I _was_ planning on using one, but as I wrote this chapter, the idea of calling her "Rain" seemed to fit better (especially since I wasn't exactly sure how to have her get the other name instead).


	5. Starting Over?

Memory of Rain and Lightening Chapter Six- nihogoneko- rated T (just in case)

Akane fanfic- I'll Remember; Lost Memory and Lightening (I call it an Akane fanfic because it revolves around Akane Tendo, mainly.)

Disclaimer: I do not own Akane, Ranma, or any of the other Rumiko Takahashi characters from Ranma 1/2, nor do I own the storyline. Sadly, I'm just not that good.

Summary: A girl wakes up in a forest clearing, with no idea who she is. She walks to the nearest town, and no one recognizes her. But she stays there and starts to build a life there as she searches for herself.

-

Chapter Six- Starting Over?

previously in chapters...

_Ranma looked out the window of his and his fathers shared room at the night sky with a sad expression. Where are you, Akane? Then he shook his head and this time looked more determined. I promise, I'll find you... Akane... _

now continuing with the story...

Rain sat up in her new bed, staring out the window. It was morning. Early morning actually. The rain had finally stopped. She could still see the glint of raindrops on the base of the window pane and feel the cool wetness in the air from the heavy storm. For some reason, she felt both comforted and slightly uneasy because of it. She shifted and got up from under the covers, walking over to the window to look at the morning sky. She felt nostalgic about the dawn, though she could not remember ever seeing one before now (even though she knew what it was so she obviously _had_ seen it before). She leaned a bit so that her body was resting against the wall next to the window.

She sighed quietly and looked at the sun. As she watched the warm morning rays kiss the scenery, her mind recalled the events of the previous day. How had she known what to do to stop that purse-snatcher? Her body had acted before the crime had even fully registered in her conscience. Had she been a cop in training or something like that? She was pretty sure that no _normal_ person would have done that. If she _had_ been normal, her body would of never moved from that spot.

She ran her hand down the window pane, feeling the condensation and coolness of the glass. Why did she feel compelled to return to this window, looking out at the street? Both yesterday and today she had done it before she had even realized it. It didn't make sense. Rain shook her head gently, lightly. It felt like something important was missing. Something from her previous life, before her amnesia. What is was though, she didn't know.

Rain sighed and turned away with difficulty, fighting the urge to look back out the window again. She had heard some sound outside her room. Somehow, she knew that Mrs.Smithy was cooking breakfast.

-

Ranma sighed dejectedly. He had been walking forever it seemed, barely taking any breaks in order to cover as much ground as possible. Within a day and a half of fast travel by foot (he had no money to ride the train like Akane and her friends had and had to ask for directions twice since he was unfamiliar with the territiry), he had reached the hot springs resort that Akane and her friends had stayed at and had questioned her friends on where they had last seen his fiancee. They told him that Akane had just gone out for a walk the day of her disappearance, but almost immediately after she had left a storm had blown in and the weather had turned really bad. When they were unable to point Ranma in the direction Akane had gone, he had assured them that he would find her and had gone off again, picking the direction that Akane most likely had gone in- towards the forest. She always _had _been the one to walk right into danger without a thought of her own safety- what if she ran into a bear, or an attacker?

Ranma sighed. There was no doubt in his mind that she would do it this time too. He grunted as he heaved his pack higher on his back and headed in the direction of the forest. Stupid Akane. If she had even a single scratch on her, he'd never let her out of his sight again. After all the times she's been kidnapped and gotten into trouble, endangering her own life over and over again, sometimes (he sadly had to admit) risking herself to help him, he thought he'd know this. But no, he had let her go to the resort alone, and now look at what had happened. He really hoped that she wasn't hurt.

Ranma reached a clearing. He wasn't out of the forest, not yet, but something about the area made him do a double take as he passed by. It was the trees. The whole clearing was surrounded by slightly charred trees, yet only the side of the each tree that was facing the clearing was charred. The rest of the sides of the trees were unharmed. On a closer glance, Ranma noticed that the grass and plants in the clearing were also a bit damaged, one spot more so than the rest- big enough for someone to stand in. He narrowed his eyes slightly, giving it a closer look before turning away. No, there was no reason for him to think that Akane could of been here when this had happened. Even though the fact that the charred plant and grass proved that whatever _had_ happened here had been recent, he shouldn't jump to any hasty conclusions. Akane did that all the time, with him and Shampoo and Kodachi and Ukyo. And she had always ended up crying when he did the same thing- after she clobbered him, that was. No, he wouldn't jump to conclusions- this time. It would just make him worry about Akane even more.

Ranma got into town later that day. It looked both friendly and even more, normal- such a change from the continual chaos of Nermia. Could Akane really be here? It was so... quiet compared to what he was use too, so it probably would be for her as well. Of course, she seemed to value any normality in her life, even the little bits of it. He didn't blame her for that. He would too if he wasn't already use to it. After all, traveling with his lazy, stealing, cheating, deadbeat of a father hardly left any time for either normal _or_ quiet. If the bum wasn't mooching off of someone or selling his only son off to another "fiancee" for a meal, he spent his time messing up and complicating Ranma's life in _some_ other way.

Ranma sighed. His stupid pops, why did he have to always-

A flash of blue hair came into Ranma's sight- short, almost shoulder length blue hair. No... it couldn't be.

He turned around as fast as possible, almost getting whiplash in the process, but didn't see anyone, no teenage girl, with blue hair. He stood there, letting his heartbeat return to normal. The adrenaline from that moment had rushed through his blood, speeding up his heart and raising his hopes. his body was tense and ready, as if preparing for a good fight. Ranma let out his breath. Akane always did this to him. It was like a punch in the gut- a sucker punch. He had been so focused on finding her that he must've been imaging seeing her here.

Ranma shook his head and turned back to continue walking. He was so pathetic. It had only been about two days since he had learned that she was missing, and yet he was already hallucinating, thinking that he had seen her pass him by. If it had really been Akane, she would of said something to him, done something- anything. Most likely she would of hit him and yelled at him, thinking that he was here to either spy on her or meet some girl for a date (he still didn't know where she always got ideas like that). No, that girl, whoever she was, couldn't of possibly been Akane. He must've just imagined that she had blue hair.

-

Rain was walking with Mrs. Smithy to the store when a flash of a pigtail- a black pigtail- had entered her line of vision. She whirled around immediately, instinctively, wanting, _needing_ to see who the person was.

"Rain? Are you okay?" Mrs. Smithy asked, concerned. "Did you see something?"

Rain's eyes searched the crowd, but she couldn't see anyone with a pigtail. She felt an odd rush of disappointment, but she was also confused. Why had she turned so quickly? It was the third time since she had woken up in the forest that her body had acted on its own. Why? What could of happened in her past life to cause such a strong reaction in her, even with amnesia?

"Rain? Can you hear me? Are you okay, sweetie?"

Rain blinked, and time seemed to move again. she realized that her body had been tensed up and had to force herself to relax. She turned to the old woman with a weak smile, trying hard to not worry her.

"I'm sorry. Yes, I'm okay. I just thought that I saw something."

Mrs. Smithy gave her a worried look nonetheless, but kept her mouth shut, for which Rain was relieved and grateful for.

"So, what did you say that we were doing again, Mrs. Smithy?" Rain asked her hoping to change the topic. "You said that you had a few errands to run and needed me to come along, right?" Thankfully, Mrs. Smithy allowed herself to be steered away from the topic of Rain's odd reaction.

"Ah yes. Good girl, Rain. Yes, yes, I did. We are going to go and get you some clothes. Can't wear my old stuff forever now, can you? Horribly outdated, it is. And I'm sure such a pretty girl like you would like something more modern and fashionable. We also need to get more food. I never expected such company, not since my niece moved away, and I'm afraid that the two of us will need to get more ingredients if I'm going to feed us both. Growing children like you need their vitamins." she smiled then, a sweet, kind smile in Rain's direction. "I know that you're probably scared since you've lost your memory, but don't you worry. Mrs. Smithy will make sure that you're looked after until we can find your family. I promise you, I'll do my best to help you, child."

Rain felt tears well up in her eyes, threatening to fall.

"Thank you, Mrs, Smithy. You really don't have to. You're way too kind."

"No child, I want to." Mrs. Smithy smiled again, more. "Believe me, nothing would make me happier than to help such a sweet girl as yourself. Besides, I can't just let you try to make it on your won, and at my age I really don't have many friends left to brighten my days."

Rain let the tears fall then, and Mrs. Smithy held her and let her cry, right in the middle of the sidewalk. Tears of happiness. Even if she never found her friends or family, even if she never regained her memory, Mrs. Smithy would be there to help her through it. She didn't have to, but she did. She was grateful, so grateful. Even though she had lost everything, she still had one friend.

"Now let's see about getting you some new clothes, hmm?" Mrs. Smithy said, still holding her gently. Rain nodded and smiled, her hands holding the old woman's clothes tightly. What would she have done if she had never found her? At that moment, Rain felt like she should thank that purse-snatcher for what he did. If it hadn't been for him, she would of never met Mrs. Smithy.

-

Tired and beat, Ranma had decided to rent a room for a few nights in the town while he searched for Akane. Despite the fact that she had a head start on him, he doubted that if she had found this town (which she most likely did, like he had said, she wasn't Ryoga) that she would pass it by. Akane wasn't really one to sleep outside without a tent, so his best bet was that she would be either in the town somewhere of nearby- if she was okay. He had found no traces of her in the forest at all, so he doubted, hoped, that she was fine. Ranma was sure that if she was threatened in any way, she would put up _some_ sort of fight and cause _some_ sort of visible damage. So by process of elimination, she would have to be here, somewhere. The question was, why hadn't she returned back to the resort yet then? Surely if she did he would of passed her by at some point.

Ranma began unpacking the rest of his stuff, having stopped to think about Akane and her whereabouts. He'd stay here for a bit and if he saw no sign of her he'd move on farther out, with the reasoning that she'd gone farther than the town (after calling home to check and see if she had made it back on her own, that is) which was highly unlikely, but still possible.

He groaned, stretching his back as he stood. All that walking and traveling had made him a bit stiff. Ranma glanced out the window and noted the position of the sun. It was dusk. Ranma changed into his pajamas. He decided to start asking around town for her tomorrow. He had a picture of her in his bag to help him too. Tomorrow was another day.

With that decided, Ranma pulled back his bed covers, climbing into bed, intent on getting some shut eye and needed rest to prepare himself for the following day. He yawned and pulled the covers over himself, sparing one more lookout the window-the sun was almost gone and he could see some stars now, twinkling at him from their position outside the glass- before rolling over and closing his eyes. He just _knew _that Akane was here. His gut told him so. All he had to do now was find her.

-

Rain stared out her bedroom window at the stars. For some odd reason, no matter what she tried, flashes of that pigtail was running through her mind, and had been ever since she had gotten back from shopping with Mrs. Smithy. What was so important about it? Rain sighed, her sight wandering, drawn, to the street below. How? How did it all fit in with her previous life? Was there a connection between the pigtail, her odd reaction to the thief, and the fact that she couldn't seem to stop looking out her window?

Suddenly, an image of a flash of light and the sound of a boom filled her mind and was gone in an instant. Rain blinked. Her heart raced. That image seemed familiar, and felt important somehow. Light and a sound? What did it mean?

"Rain?"

She turned. Mrs. Smithy was standing in her doorway.

"Yes, Mrs. Smithy? What can I do for you?" she asked, turning away from the window to give her friend her full attention.

"Well, I have been thinking. Now don't get me wrong, I could be off, but I was just remembering how we met and about that thief and I got to thinking..." Mrs. Smithy trailed off a bit, as if giving her (Rain) time to grasp what she had said so far. "When I remember how you stopped that criminal, I got to thinking.. Rain, what if you had martial arts training before you lost your memory?"

end of chapter six.


	6. A Small Hope

Summary: A girl wakes up in a forest clearing, with no idea who she is. She walks to the nearest town, and no one recognizes her. But she stays there and starts to build a life there as she searches for herself.

Disclaimer: I do not own Akane, Ranma, or any of the other Rumiko Takahashi characters from Ranma 1/2, nor do I own the storyline. Sadly, I'm just not that good.

to my readers: to Twilight, thanks for the review. I know, I hate waiting for new chapters too. I'm glad that you like my stories so much (and thanks for the great complement). Yeah, I know that it needs more comedy. But I'm not really sure how to put it in here yet, so you might have to wait for a bit, okay? I'm a big fan of Ranma 1/2 fics that actually seem Ranma 1/2 like myself, so I try. And to all my other readers, thank you for staying with me this far (and thank you to all those who reviewed as well). :)

Now, on with the story...

-7-

Chapter Seven- "A Small Hope"

previously in chapters...

_She turned. Mrs. Smithy was standing in her doorway._

_"Yes, Mrs. Smithy? What can I do for you?" she asked, turning away from the window to give her friend her full attention._

_"Well, I have been thinking. Now don't get me wrong, I could be off, but I was just remembering how we met and about that thief and I got to thinking..." Mrs. Smithy trailed off a bit, as if giving her (Rain) time to grasp what she had said so far. "When I remember how you stopped that criminal, I got to thinking.. Rain, what if you had martial arts training before you lost your memory?"_

now continuing with the story...

"Martial arts training?" Rain repeated, a bit confused. Her mind spun at the mention of the sport. Martial arts... why did that phrase sound so familiar? Of course, she knew what martial arts _was_, but it sounded _more,_ as if she said the phrase herself, often. Like, maybe as a description? She didn't know any martial arts, did she?

Rain turned her head to stare out the window in thought. It would of explained why she was so in shape. And her body had moved so smoothly when she had gone after that purse-snatcher. The idea of her practicing wasn't actually so hard to contemplate, when she thought about it. But if she _did _do martial arts, then... she must've had a master, right? Someone who knew her? Knew her family? Maybe, if they figured out what art she studied, they could find her teacher, and then her home...

Mrs. Smithy watched as the girls eyes turned hopeful, more hopeful than she probably even realized. Her eyes were glued out the window so intently, yet she seemed to be far away at the same time. Apparently, she had come to the same conclusion as Mrs. Smithy had when she had first thought about it. If Rain had been trained, formally trained, then there should be someone who taught her, and know her. Someone who would be able to recognize Rain, and reunite her with her family. She may be able to get her life back. It was a bit of a stretch, but not impossible.

However, the light left Rains' eyes shortly after, and it didn't take a genius to figure out why. She had thought it out and had realized the same thing that Mrs. Smithy had. Her head fell slightly to her chest and her bangs shadowed her eyes from view.

"Mrs. Smithy, I'm happy that we have something to go on. Really. If we add this to my looks, we have two things that could help us find my family, or have my family find me. But many people go missing in Japan. Even with this information, the police have so many cases. And compared to what they know of some of those missing people, what we know about me is very little. How can we be sure I won't just be just another one of the million missing kids on their list, being looked for? I don't even have my memory, so it's not like I can recognize my own mother if I saw her."

For some reason, that last sentence made Rain's eyes tear up. Though Mrs. Smithy still couldn't see them, she could hear it in the child's voice.

"I don't even know if I have parents, or siblings. Maybe something horrible had happened to me, and that's why I can't remember anything. Maybe all of my family is dead."

"Rain, you shouldn't think like that. I'm sure you have family out there, searching for you with everything they've got. Don't give up." Mrs. Smithy said, trying to console the depressed thoughts racing through the young girls mind. Depression so early on, when just a minute ago she had been so cheerful and hopeful. Another personality quirk that the girl had. It made Mrs. Smithy sad to think that it probably meant that Rain had been disappointed so many times in her past that her mood change had become so natural that it showed up even with her memory loss.

It seemed that there was a lot that had been wrong in the girl's life. The psychology classes Mrs. Smithy had taken and her natural instincts about people came in handy now. She silently thanked her psychology teacher and her mother for it and turned her mind back to the present.

"Well, maybe we shouldn't involve the police just yet." Mrs. Smithy agreed somewhat grudgingly. Sad but true, the police would just see Rain as one of many lost children, and the child's memory loss would put her further down the list too. Best to just keep it quiet for now. Though it may cause some trouble later if they did go to the police, since they didn't immediately report it. But not like it would really matter that much anyway. Life experiences had shown the older woman how incompetent the police could be. They might just leave the officers out of it all altogether.

"Mrs. Smithy?"

"Yes, Rain?" she turned to the girl, mentally shaking her head at her wayward thoughts.

"Thanks."

Rain smiled, and though it was a ghost of the smile that Mrs. Smithy knew she had, it was still stunningly beautiful.

"You're welcome." she said, smiling back.

Then Mrs. Smithy took a cleansing breath and clapped her hands together, determined to raise the girl's spirits.

"Well, now that that's all over, there's another matter of business we have yet to address." She met Rain's puzzled expression with a warm and open smile."Would you like to make some cookies?"

Rain laughed.

"Sure."

-Ranma-

He was dreaming of her smile. It always lit up her face. He could almost hear her laughter.

Akane... Even in his sleep, Ranma's fist tightened. He would find her. He _would_.

Outside, rain began to tap a steady pattern on the roof.

-Akane/Rain-

She took out another batch of burnt cookies. Batter was splattered over the table and floor, utensils scattered around everywhere.

It was the third ruined batch. She sighed, dejectedly.

"Oh, don't worry about it." Mrs. Smithy said, waving her hand dismissively at the batch. "Practice akes perfect. Let's try again."

Rain felt tears unexpectedly, and was careful not to blink, afraid of them falling and upsetting Mrs. Smithy. Why couldn't she get it right?

"Let's try again." Mrs. Smithy said, putting some of the utensils into the sink to wash. "Oh, I haven't done this in awhile. Isn't this fun?"

She aimed a dazzling smile towards her, which shaved decades off of her features. Suddenly, Rain saw an attractive woman who was... happy, despite living alone.

The rain tapping on the window drew her gaze towards the outside, and for a minute, she just stared at it all. The sight dredged up a mixture of emotions, some that she couldn't even identify, and so muddled that she could grasp others before they were gone.

"Okay. Now the secret to baking good cookies is to always watch the batter."\rain turned back to see Mrs. Smithy wiping her hands on a rag, apparently finished with the dishes.

"Ready to try again?" the woman asked her. She hesitated only a second before nodding, feeling an odd drive to get a batch right. Her last thought before she immersed herself in the task was if she had been able to cook before she lost her memory.

-Ranma-

He woke up to sunlight streaming through the window, directly onto him. Thankfully, it was hitting his abdomen, stomach, and part of his legs instead of his face. His first thought was to go out searching for Akane. But as his stomach growled loudly, he realized that it might be wiser to eat first.

He got up to dig through his pack.

-Akane/Rain-

By morning she was back to wondering about her old life. She lay in bed for a bit, contemplating what it might've been like. Did she have siblings? Live with grandparents? Have a lot of friends?

For a second, her mind flashed a image of black, a blur, and she immediately tried to grasp it, but it was gone as suddenly as it had come. Dissapointed that she couldn't dredge up more, she got up to get dressed.

-Ranma-

Because he hadn't had anything sufficient enough for him in his pack, he had decided to set out in search of a food store. Ranma looked around the street, trying to find something with a sign advertising some -any- sort of food. At least he had some money to get food with. Better than his pop had ever done. It made him feel proud of himself, especially considering his roots. He didn't like the idea of stealing.

Patting his pocket with the money in it, ranma strolled down the street, searching for a food store and, hopefully, a short haired girl named Akane.

-Akane/Rain-

She walked down the street with Mrs. Smithy. They had decided to go to a martial arts academy, of which Mrs. Smithy knew the owner, in the hopes that Rain could try a class and see if she could either dredge up some memories or that the guy would be able to recognize her style so they could try a serch for where she might of trained.

"So, you really want to do this? We can skip it, you know." Mrs. Smithy looked at her, a bit of worry showed in her eyes. Worry for her.

"I'm fine." she assured her. And she was. For some reason, she didn't feel nervous at all.

-Ranma-

He was looking at a store that seemed to be a food store.

-Akane/Rain-

She was keeping her eyes open for the martial arts academy.

-Ranma-

He was about to turn towards the entrance...

-Akane/Rain-

When suddenly, she stumbled on the uneven ground and started to fall...

-Ranma-

...he heard a small surprised gasp and turned just as a girl his age began to fall. He instinctively reached out his arms to catch her...

-Akane/Rain-

...strong arms surrounded her, steadying her and holding her to a male chest. She looked up...

-Ranma-

...and he stared down into the eyes of Akane.

-Akane/Rain-

...and she stared up into eyes that seemed all too familiar.

-end chapter.

-end chapter notations: so... how'd you like my cliffhanger?


	7. Adjusting to Change

Summary: A girl wakes up in a forest clearing, with no idea who she is. She walks to the nearest town, and no one recognizes her. But she stays there and starts to build a life there as she searches for herself.

Disclaimer: I do not own Akane, Ranma, or any of the other Rumiko Takahashi characters from Ranma 1/2, nor do I own the storyline. Sadly, I'm just not that good.

to all my readers: thank you for reading this far. The moment you've been waiting for is at hand! Ranma has found Akane! Thank you all for reading this far and, no, the story's not over yet. Far from it. :) I was so happy with all the reviews I got, telling me to update as soon as possible. I'm so glad you all enjoyed the cliffhanger! Thank you again, and keep reading! I promise to try to make it as worthwhile as possible! :) I'll even make Ranma and Akane kiss! (not really) Hopefully, this really long chapter makes up for it (I hadn't planned on it being so long, but after I planned what to put in it and the perfect cliffhanger to go with it, I didn't want to shorten it and needed all the stuff in between to get up to that point.)

the story thus far: Akane/Rain was heading to a martial arts academy with Mrs. Smithy, and Ranma was off looking for a food store when they bump into each other. Their eyes met. Will Akane recognize Ranma? Will Ranma realize Akane doesn't have her memory? Find out now!

-8-

Chapter Eight - Adjusting to Change

Last excerpt:

_-Ranma-_

_He was looking at a store that seemed to be a food store, and was about to turn towards the entrance when he heard a small surprised gasp and turned, just as a girl his age began to fall. He instinctively reached out his arms to catch her... and felt his whole body freeze with shock as he stared down into the eyes of Akane._

_-Akane/Rain-_

_She was keeping her eyes open for the martial arts academy when suddenly, she stumbled on the uneven ground and started to fall. Strong arms surrounded her, steadying her and holding her to a hard male chest. She looked up... and stared up into eyes that seemed all too familiar._

And now... on with the story!

-Ranma-

Ranma stared down into the girl's eyes. Chocolate brown, filled with surprise. Relief and shock coursed through him at the same time, a strange surge of emotions that he should be use to considering the life he led, but still wasn't.

She looked like she didn't expect to see him here. A 'why are you here?' look was on her face. Like she didn't know that he'd come looking for her. Surprise. Shock. Well, he'd give her a piece of his mind on _that_ matter. And then ask her why she had disappeared in the first place.

At least she seemed to be unharmed.

Akane tried to pull away from him, and Ranma let her go, abet a bit reluctantly. He had just found her, he didn't want to lose her again. He was only reassured by the fact that he could catch her if she made a break for it. But she probably wouldn't, because she knew he'd then tell her family about it, and they'd worry about her. Well, they were worrying about her now too. And it wasn't like Akane to make others worry about her. Which brought him back to his first thought.

"Akane, what're you doin' here? You're suppose to be in the hot springs with yer friends!" he said, trying to keep the worry and demand out of his voice. He managed on the first, at least, if only just.

-Akane/Rain-

She stared at the stranger, who for some reason seemed to be familiar to her, although she couldn't remember ever meeting him before. She couldn't place his face, or his voice. But... she couldn't shake the slight shiver that had suddenly brought goose bumps on her flesh. His arm had held her so strongly, but so gently. She had been able to feel his strength from just those few seconds in his arms. And that more than anything else, even not knowing who she was, frightened her. She had felt a rush of happiness, almost like excitement to see someone unexpected, and familiarity that she hadn't thought possible, with that one hold. Was... was he someone she had known? But what would be the odds that he'd be _here_, when she had randomly wandered into the town to begin with?

His words came back to her. Hot springs? 'Akane'? None of what he said dredged up anything. And that scared her more, because it sounded like he _did _know her. Which meant that she should remember _something_ from seeing him. But she didn't, and she had tried.

The full knowledge of her memory loss finally hit her. She couldn't remember _anything_. Not even someone who knew her.

Suddenly, Rain felt so alone.

She looked up at the stranger in front of her. He was her age, probably, but more muscular and tall than the other guys her age that she'd seen in town so far. And he was handsome. His voice had been nice, too, although his manners needed some work. The guy had bad grammar too. More than anyone that she had known.

Suddenly, the thought came to her that maybe she really _didn't_ know him. And maybe he didn't really know her. Nothing stirred in her mind about him, and she was sure that_ something_ should. Especially judging by the familiar way he spoke to her, and his distinguishing traits. Maybe he had overheard her and Mrs. Smithy talking about her amnesia and decided to play a prank on her, or something like that.

The thought made her angry, and heat rushed up so fast through her that it shocked her. Except that she was too mad to be anything but just that. Angry. There was no real room for shock. Somehow, the fury was comforting, as if it was a familiar friend. As if this sort of thing (being tricked) happened often. It was a thought that Rain didn't want to contemplate.

Her fist clenched tightly at her side. She gripped it so tightly that the heat seemed to burn her flesh. She knew that it wasn't possible, that it was just the fact that her nails were digging into her skin too tightly, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something powerful was coursing through her blood at that moment.

A kind voice pulled her out of her thoughts, and her rage.

"Rain? Are you okay?"

It was Mrs. Smithy. She was looking at her, concerned. Rain didn't look back at the woman, but she could feel her eyes on her all the same, taking in her posture and expression, seeing how tense she was.

Slowly, Rain let out her breath, loosening her tight grip as she did so. Nothing would be solved by hitting this stranger. Even though she had a strange, and very strong, urge to.

As she relaxed her muscles, Rain felt something slip from her mind that she hadn't even realized had been there until it began to fade. Something that she somehow _knew _was from before she lost her memory. Frantically, she tried to hold onto it. But it was gone before she could grasp it, or figure it out.

She glanced up into the stranger's eyes in amazement- searching his face, his expression. For some reason, she had the strangest idea that her getting angry at him had brought back some fleeting memories. Memories that she had lost with the amnesia. Memories that she felt involved him. But she couldn't know him... could she?

"I-I'm fine." she muttered to Mrs. Smithy, distracted.

She _was_ fine, right?

"Well, then. We should apologize to this nice young boy and continue on, hmm?"

Suddenly, Rain remembered where she was and how stupid she must look, staring at the boy like she was.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" she apologized to him before turning to leave, embarrassed. But before she had taken more than one step, she was jerked to a stop by a firm hand holding onto her wrist.

She turned to see the boy who claimed to know her holding said wrist, his eyes staring into hers, instantly connecting. Rain felt heat crawl up her neck and a shiver run down her spine. The look was intimate, like you would give to someone you've known a long time, someone you knew a lot about, spent a lot of time with, and had gone through a lot of tough times together with. It was a look that she couldn't recall ever having with anyone before. Why was he looking at her like that?

A very confused

"Uh..."

slipped out of her mouth before she could even think, her mind still blank, and the moment was broken. Whatever feelings that had been in the air before was now gone.

She couldn't think of what to say to him. He seemed to stir up odd things in her, odd feelings that didn't seem to fit in with how she should feel towards a stranger. The sudden anger she had earlier couldn't be a normal reaction to meeting someone. But then, neither could the look that they shared... Could it?

-Ranma-

He couldn't bring himself to let go of her wrist. He just had the feeling that he shouldn't let her out of his sight. And, for better or worst, Ranma always tended to trust his gut instinct. He repeated his question, keeping his voice steady and calm. For some reason, he had the idea that if he wasn't, Akane'd bolt like a frightened animal.

"Akane... Why are you here?"

She looked flustered, and reluctantly, Ranma let go of her hand. She relaxed a bit, but not much. Ranma got ready just in case she tried to run for it. He wouldn't be happy if she did, but he'd catch her before he asked any questions, if it came down to that. But for now, he'd let her have the little freedom. He couldn't tell her how worried he really was, but he could think it all he wanted.

"What... are you talking about?"

He blinked. That wasn't the response he was expecting. Maybe _"None of your business"_ or _"Why should you care"_ or something to that effect, but her reply sounded more like she was_ suppose_ to be here, in this town (and apparently with this old woman), instead of with her friends at the hot springs.

Ranma frowned. It wasn't like Akane to ditch her friends. She normally would at least _tell _them so that they wouldn't worry about her. And there was no way that she would joke about something like this. It was just too serious to be a joke. Her family and friends were all worried about her. She just wasn't like that, abandoning her loved ones for fun, so why-

"Um, excuse me, young man. I don't mean to interrupt you, but we do have an appointment to keep. If you want, you can come with us. But we really do have to go." the old woman who seemed to know Akane said.

Ranma looked at her, but she didn't have a look as strict as her words suggested. In fact, she looked puzzled, but was smiling warmly. She reminded him a bit of Kasumi like that.

"You can talk and walk, can't you?" she asked, and mutely, Ranma nodded.

"Thank you."

They walked a bit in silence, with Akane stealing curious glances at him, which confused Ranma even more.

Soon they reached a martial arts academy, and Ranma stared at it a bit before following them inside. Why were they going there?

-Akane/Rain-

"We're here to see Mr. Tsuruga." Mrs. Smithy said to one of the students practicing on the mats. "Could you please tell him that we're here?"

"Sure." the kid, who couldn't be more than two years older than she was, said to Mrs. Smithy and disappeared through a doorway, returning moments later with a man of about late-thirties, wearing a gi cinched with a black belt with three yellow stripes (a third-degree black belt), who spotted them immediately.

"Kiki!" he exclaimed, a surprised but happy look on his face, walking up to them. "What a pleasant surprise! I haven't seen you in ages! What brings you here?"

"Nice to see you too, Tsuruga." Mrs. Smithy said. "Actually, I have a favor to ask you."

"Well, as you know, anything for a friend." he looked over at her direction, smiling a welcome to her as well.

"What is it?"

"I'd like you to meet Rain, a friend of mine." Mrs. Smithy smiled at her then. "She seems quite the unusual girl, you see. I wanted to know if you would have a match with her?"

The welcoming smile on Mr. Tsuruga's face left, replaced with a frown, and he turned back towards Mrs. Smithy.

"A match? Are you sure?"

"Yes. Rain has already agreed to it, haven't you, Rain?"

"Yes." she replied, making sure that her voice was steady and sure, looking directly into the man's doubtful eyes. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw that the boy she had bumped into (and that had followed them) gave her an unreadable look that bordered on doubt. She tried to ignore it.

Mr. Tsuruga studied both her and Mrs. Smithy, sighed, and shook his head in resignation.

"Well, I can't refuse both of you, not when you obviously have no doubts about it. Sure, I'll spar with you, if you don't mind the audience." he said, gesturing in the direction of the students practicing. "Will you need mats?"

"No." Rain said, the word coming out of her mouth before she had even thought about it, and was surprised to realize that the idea of fighting a full grown man on the bare floor didn't bother her in the least. "The floor is fine."

"Do you want to borrow a gi?"

"No." she said again, and was again surprised with how automatically she responded and how calm she felt, like she had nothing to fear. Mr. Tsuruga was a fairly tall man, and muscular in a lean way. She should at least be nervous about facing against such an opponent, right? So why didn't she?

-Ranma-

He watched them set up the area, clearing the students away, who formed a line against the walls to watch and observe their master in action. Why was Akane going to spar with a dojo master? She wasn't the strongest or most skilled of the martial artists he knew, and a master would give her a tough match, even though she could break bricks with her bare hands. Remembering the dojo destroyer, he shifted his feet to a more comfortable position, in case he had to leap in and stop her from pushing herself too hard. The Akane he knew wouldn't give up, even if she got hurt. But he didn't want to return her to her father injured, and neither did he want to watch her be injured if he could stop it.

He sensed the old woman approach him, and didn't turn to look at her as she spoke, focused on watching Akane.

"She'll be fine, you know." the woman reassured him. "She's strong."

"It's not her strength I'm worried about." he answered her, not taking his eyes off Akane as she and the master bowed to each other and took their stances. Well, the master took one and Akane just stood there, which nagged at the back of his mind. Akane always took a stance when she wanted to fight. "Akane's not skilled enough to take on a master. She doesn't know how to use her strength effectively yet."

"You sound like you know a lot about her."

"I've known her for over a year now. You can learn a lot about a person in that time." Something on his face must've shown, because her voice became more serious, and her worry showed through as she asked

"Tell me, what do you know about Rain?"

He turned to her then, enough so that he could look at her and still watch Akane out of the corner of his eye.

" 'Rain'?"

-Akane/Rain-

She stood still, watching for him to make the first move. She didn't take a stance, not knowing how to, not remembering how to, but he did. His eyes watched her, and when he realized that she wouldn't attack first, he came forward quickly, moving with a speed that she somehow knew most would have trouble easily following.

She watched his foot strike out and, before she knew what she was doing, her body ducked and her right arm lashed out, blocking the leg above the ankle. She swung with her other hand, towards his side, and the man managed to leap back just before she could connect.

Rain stood from the crouch she had been in and stared at him, waiting and watching for his next move. She wasn't sure exactly how she was doing everything, or how she had been able to watch his moves so easily (even though they were still pretty fast), but she didn't want to risk messing it up by charging in. She'd be patient.

She didn't have long to wait. Almost immediately after the man realized that she wouldn't make a follow-up move, he struck again.

-Ranma-

Ranma watched Akane in amazement, having stopped talking when he saw her counter the first move. She couldn't remember who she was (he had heard that much from Mrs. Smithy), but she could still fight? Not only was she doing pretty well against the guy- he was no challenge to Ranma but he should of been more of one to her- but she wasn't charging headfirst at him, or gloating at her victory so far. Normally, Akane'd be bouncing on her toes, taunting the man. Or, at least, that's what she used to do. Now, he couldn't be so sure.

"She couldn't fight like this before?" Mrs. Smithy asked him, her voice a bit worried and regretful for having Akane do the match, despite how well she was doing. Guilt. Ranma knew it well.

"She could fight before." he explained, trying to ease the woman's troubled worry. "Her father is the master of a dojo in Nerima. But Akane's self-taught, and not_ this_ good. Or at least, if she was, _I_ never knew about it." He could feel her eyes on him.

"So she just suddenly got better."

He nodded. He couldn't believe it either, except the proof was staring him right in the eye. Akane was doing good, more than good, against the third-degree black belt.

"Will... she be okay?"

"Fighting against that guy?"

Ranma shook his head. "Before, she wouldn't be able to. At least, not without a lot of concentration, I don't think. But now... I don't know."

-Akane/Rain-

She dodged another punch and rolled on the ground, coming up fast to block a downwards kick with her arms crossed over her head. She pushed, and he pulled his leg back to keep his balance. Seeing an opening, she struck, hitting out, and grazed his side before he once again got out of range.

Now more sure of herself, and allowing her body to take over, keeping her mind blank and watching him for any sudden moments, Rain rushed forward, catching him off guard and sweeping his feet out from under him. He leapt back up before she could follow with a hit, and caught her wrist. He tried to flip her, but she used his momentum to spin gracefully, twisting mid-air and out of his grip, and landing lightly on the ground.

They stared at each other for a bit, before the man, Mr. Tsuruga, stood up straight from his crouch. He smiled at her.

"Well, I think that this was more than enough to prove whatever it was for Kiki, don't you?" he asked her.

Rain stood up straight from her crouch too, smiling. She tried to ignore the rush of adrenaline that flowed through her body almost since she had set foot inside the dojo, which was telling her to continue fighting, careful to stand still against the need to move around to wear off the excess energy.

"Yeah."

They both turned to face Mrs. Smithy and the boy who had followed her to the academy. Mrs. Smithy was smiling, although it was a bit worried. The boy was staring at her again with an unreadable look.

-

"So, you're going to be staying with us?" Rain asked the boy, as they walked back to Mrs. Smithy's house. He glanced at Mrs. Smithy for confirmation before nodding at her.

"Where is your family? They're not with you too?"

"Nah. I can take care of myself." the boy replied, and he scratched the back of his head, as if he felt self-conscious. "Er, you can call me Ranma, by the way. Ranma Saotome."

"Ranma?"

He looked at her as if he was surprised, but when she continued with

"Okay."

he seemed disappointed. She mentally shook her head, curious. Why was he here? And how could he be so sure that he knew her if she didn't know him? Maybe she just looked like someone he knew. But then, she didn't remember much of anything, did she?

Again, the thought saddened her, and she looked at the ground. She thought back to when they had bumped into each other.

"Hey..." she began, addressing him, looking back at him "What did you call me earlier? Back when we first met?"

He looked at her, his eyes sad. "Akane. I called you Akane."

"Oh." was all she could say in return, looking away. For whatever reason, her chest felt tight, like she was going to cry.

-Ranma-

That night, Ranma and Mrs. Smithy sat alone at her table in the kitchen, drinking tea. They had dropped by to get Ranma's stuff from the place he had stayed at last night and he had moved into another room after dinner.

"She looked so sad, I wanted to tell her everything." Mrs. Smithy was saying to him. "But I guess it's for the best if we keep silent. From what you've told me, telling her about her life, especially a life like_ that_, would be bad and worse to have her go back to while she doesn't remember anything about it. It would be saddening for her."

Ranma nodded. He had told her a lot about Akane's life, with one of the few exceptions being their arranged marriage. He didn't want the old woman assuming things about her, or about him, from it.

"I haven't always been able to help Akane when she needed it, and I've been sort of a jerk to her, sometimes. But would I feel really bad about leaving her here, and I can't tell her dad about it. When you told me that Akane didn't remember anything, and I realized that she couldn't even remember her own name, couldn't even remember me..." he trailed off for a bit, staring down into his cup.

"I dunno. Somehow, I feel responsible for all of this."

"Now now. No use blaming yourself. It just happened, like some things do." she patted his arm gently, and Ranma looked up at her. For some reason, he felt comfortable talking with this woman, and it didn't feel weird to tell her stuff he normally wouldn't tell someone else.

"I can't say why your friend has lost her memory, but I can tell that you are not responsible. You care too much about her."

Ranma pushed aside the feelings that came with that statement, and forced his mind to focus on the issue.

"Do you still promise to do it? Even though you don't know anything about me?" he asked, head bowed, his black bangs hiding his eyes.

"Yes, of course I'll keep my promise." Mrs. Smithy sipped her tea. "Although I wish I could tell her, I agree that it would be best to say nothing about anything you told me to her. I just hope that she gets her memory back soon."

Ranma turned his head, staring out the window into the night, his throat feeling slightly tight.

_So do I._

-Rain/Akane-

Rain tossed and turned in her sleep.

_She was standing in a forest that seemed vaguely familiar. Rain poured down, and in the distance, lightening and thunder flashed and boomed. She looked up from staring at the ground, at her feet, to see someone standing opposite of her. Dripping red bangs hid the face from view, but from the clothes that clung to the person's body, it was unmistakenably a girl about her age._

_"Who... are you...?" Rain asked, feeling like something about this was important, but unable to explain why. The girl turned and ran._

_"Wait!" Rain shouted, running after her, arm outstretched, but the girl ran faster, almost out of sight. Already, the girl was fading from view, a red pigtail swinging behind her. Rain knew that she had no memory of her life that she could remember, but..._

_"Wait! I think I know who you are!"_

_The girl stopped and turned suddenly, so quick that Rain almost couldn't see it, blue eyes that were now visible stared back at her, serious._

_"Do you really? Do you know who I am?" the redhead asked, her voice almost demanding, almost angry. _

_There was a flash of lightening that blinded her and thunder that seemed to shake the ground, and Rain woke up with a jolt._

"A- A dr-..." she gasped and panted, feeling as if she had run a marathon, her heart beating too fast as she clenched her fist to her chest.

"It was... a dream...?"

-

She left three days later for school. Mrs. Smithy had enrolled her into an all girls' school- the closest school she could find within walking distance for her to go to, so that she could take classes and not miss anything. Even though it was a different school, they all taught basically the same thing at basically the same pace, so she could keep up. And since, despite the fact that Rain didn't remember her actual life, she remembered facts, Mrs. Smithy thought it best that she go to school so that when (and if, although that part wasn't said out loud) she remembered everything, she wouldn't have to worry about making up schoolwork.

Vacation had ended that day, and Mrs. Smithy had picked up a uniform for her the day before, so she set off down the road at a fast pace, hoping to make it before the bell rang.

-Ranma-

Ranma and Mrs. Smithy watched her go, Ranma having stayed behind for obvious reasons. He refused to leave Akane alone and go back home without her, and he couldn't go with her her to the school because he had left out another thing about his life with Akane when he had told the old woman about them yesterday- his curse. He hadn't wanted Mrs. Smithy to look at him weird, and wasn't ready to risk pushing Akane further away than she already was from him. She still acted like he was a stranger, but she acted comfortable around Mrs. Smithy. Therefore, as long as his luck held out and kept cold water away from him, he would avoid telling her.

"So..." Mrs. Smithy began, still looking at Akane's retreating back. "What do you what to do now?"

"..." Ranma stared after Akane, before turning to head back inside.

"Ranma?"

"Where did you say that this school was again?" he asked, going over the threshhold.

The old woman smiled.

"Grab my shoes too, young man. You're not going without me."

-

They arrived at the school ten minutes after classes started, mainly because they wanted to make sure that neither Akane nor anyone else would see them wandering around the grounds.

"Can you see her?" Mrs. Smithy asked.

"..."

Ranma was silent as he stared in through the window, several feet from the building. He had climbed a tree and was now perched in one of its branches, eyes scanning for Akane. Because neither he nor Mrs. Smithy wanted to sit twiddling their thumbs and worrying, they had decided to watch Akane and make sure that she was okay.

"There she is." he said, spotting her a few desks away. She had her head down, taking notes. "She seems fine."

"Oh, good." Mrs. Smithy breathed out a sigh of relief, a hand on her chest, as if she had been worried that Akane wouldn't be okay. Ranma knew how she felt though, because he did too.

They stayed that way for about an hour before speaking again, just watching through the window.

-

"Ah" Mrs. Smithy groaned, her hand on her lower back. "I'm not as young as I pretend to be, sometimes. I think I have to go home and lie down.

"Okay." Ranma said, distracted, having been focused on Akane the whole time, his eyes briefly straying from the girl's form to glance at her. "It's fine. You can go back."

Mrs. Smithy looked up at him for a minute more, studying the expression on his face, before nodding and walking away, off the school grounds. Ranma, meanwhile, then focused all his attention on Akane, once more blocking out everything else.

Ranma watched Akane through the window, studying her carefully. She didn't seem to be any different, acting any different, than she use to. She was acting completely normal. Well, maybe not completely. The normal Akane would've already picked a fight with him before leaving for school.

But then again, the normal Akane wouldn't of been able to spar against that dojo master without being hit at least once.

Ranma shook his head, again focusing all his attention back on Akane. He could worry about all that later. For now, he wouldn't let her out of his sight.

-Akane/Rain-afterschool-

Rain walked out of the school feeling a mixture of exhaustion and sadness. While it had been true that she knew what they were talking about in all the classes, in relation to the experience of school itself, she had no memory. None at all. How could such a thing have been wiped from her mind so completely? Something so regular and consistent...

She stared at the ground dejectedly, worried about what that might mean for the future. Would she never be able to recognize her own family? Never remember them if she met them on the street? Would she never-

A small sound caught her ears and she looked up to find the boy who had called himself Ranma standing at the school entrance, waiting for her. Unexpectedly, her feelings lifted. And her hand at her side clenched as an overflow of feelings rushed through her body. Here was someone who claimed to know her. And though she didn't remember him, maybe he could help her remember.

-Ranma-

Ranma, who had been watching for any indication that she was feeling off, noticed the tremble in her hand right away. He felt a wave of sadness pass over him. It was probably because she missed her life, that she couldn't remember going to school at all, although she was in one now. He knew she didn't remember anything, because he had watched her face intently all day, hoping that he would see a look of familiarity, of recognition, cross her face. But there had been none. Right now, she was probably really upset and trying to hide it from him.

_Akane... I wish I could help you remember..._

His mind played back to the time that Shampoo had erased Akane's memory with that shampoo. But that had only been her memory of him, and there had been a cure (although they hadn't gotten it from Shampoo or, in the end, even needed it). This time, though, he feared that bringing her memory back wouldn't be so simple. It would take a lot more than insulting her to get her to remember her family, her friends, her life, _her name_, or... him.

Akane looked up at him, her eyes a bit surprised that he had come to get her, and, though she tried to hide it, he could see a bit of her sadness as well.

"Ranma, what are you doing here?"

Well, at least she could remember his name this time around. He smiled sadly, inwardly, while he said

"I wanted to walk you back."

and smiled a friendly, warm smile at her outwardly.

-

They returned back in short time and were greeted by Mrs. Smithy, who was standing at the entranceway with a smile on her face.

"Welcome back you two. Rain, how was your first day of school?"

"It was... ah... fine." Akane said, with a smile in return, although Ranma knew that Mrs. Smithy saw the strain in her cheerful expression.

"I thought that as a celebration to your first day, we could go out to eat tonight. What do you say?"

Slowly, the hidden sadness in Akane's face evaporated, replaced by an easier and more natural smile.

"Sure!"

She looked at Mrs. Smithy again, before realizing why the older woman was standing outside.

"Ah, wait. Let me go put my things upstairs!" she said, and ran past them to put her book bag away. Both Mrs. Smithy and Ranma watched her go, and it wasn't until she was out of sight that the woman let out a sad breath.

"In truth, I had been worried that she would return home like this." she said to Ranma, who kept his eyes on the doorway. "I was afraid that it might be a bad idea, but I went ahead with it anyway."

"There's nothing to be ashamed about." Ranma said, earning him a surprised look. "You were right to have her attend school. Akane always hated to miss it. If we can't do anything else for her, we should at least let her keep up with her schoolwork."

"Thank you, Ranma." Mrs. Smithy said, and he turned his head to see her giving him a warm smile. "You're right. Let's worry about now rather than later."

"..."

Embarrassed and unsure of how to respond to her praise and faith in him, neither of which he deserved, Ranma looked away, turning just in time to catch the sound and sight of Akane coming back outside. It was later that he was worried about. But he didn't want to worry the old woman by saying so. Trouble followed him like a magnet, and with him staying so close to Akane, she was bound to get caught up in something soon. And without her memory, he wasn't sure how she would handle it.

"Ranma! Are you coming?"

He snapped back to reality to find that Akane and Mrs. Smithy were already several feet away, waiting for him.

"Ah, yeah, I'm coming! Wait up!" he called, and sprinted to catch up. He'd worry about later later, like Mrs. Smithy said. With any luck, hopefully, things could stay as they were for now- uneventful and quiet.

-Mrs. Smithy-

They had just finished eating and were returning back home to relax and let Rain do her homework (which was the reason for the early dinner- so that she would be distracted from school for a bit. Mrs. Smithy was going to put it off, but the minute that she had seen Rain's troubled face, she had decided sooner was better than later). The pace was slow and unhurried, which was just how she liked it. She found that as she got older, she wanted to enjoy the simple things more and more, like the fresh air and warm sun.

They were just walking under a store roof when a creaking sound reached her ears, like the extended roof was bending under a lot of weight. She looked up just as the drain pipe above them (which must've been clogged and holding the water from two nights ago) broke, spilling rainwater directly on Ranma and splashing her and Rain, who had been walking at his sides.

Mrs. Smithy closed her eyes as the water splashed her, her arm up to ward off the worst of it. But when she heard Rain gasp, she immediately opened them again, to see the strangest sight that she had ever seen. In front of her was Rain, with both of her hands over her mouth and a shocked look on her face, and a redhead girl, dripping wet. Ranma was nowhere in sight.

-Ranma-

Ranma felt the water before he realized what happened. Sighing, he, now a she, pushed red bangs out of her face, dripping with cold water. Great. And here he had been hoping that he could keep this bit of his life a secret from Akane, for at least a bit longer.

Ranma blew a strand of hair that had fallen into her face, water still dripping off her hair at a steady rate. This was just what he had hoped to avoid.

"Um... Ranma?"

The redhead, steeling herself for their rejection and accusations, looked up to find Akane and Mrs. Smithy staring at her with a look of total shock on their faces. If it wasn't her that had just had her most personal secret outed to the two people she had been trying to hide it from, she might have laughed.

"There's something that I have to tell you." she said with a resigned sigh. "But first, do you happen to have a towel on you?"

-

A short time later, Ranma (still in his cursed form), Mrs. Smithy, and Rain were sitting in Mrs. Smithy's living room.

"So... You went on a training trip with your father and fell into a cursed spring that changes your gender whenever you get splashed with cold or warm water?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. I didn't want to freak you guys out."

"Well now. At least I don't have to worry about you going to school by yourself anymore." Mrs. Smithy said, smiling, and Ranma was grateful for her attempt at looking on the bright side of things. She hadn't once pointed out that he had lied to them. It was a lie of omission, but it was still a lie. Come to think of it, neither had Akane.

He looked over to her, wondering how she was taking all of this, and saw her staring back at him. He wanted to squirm under her gaze. Would she reject him, again, like the last time she had lost her memory? Or would she ignore it, like it didn't exist? Would she call him a pervert, or wait until Mrs. Smithy left the room to begin her tirade? The last time she had lost her memory, she had called him a pervert, and he had wanted to avoid it this time around. But it looked like it may be inevitable.

He knew he was babbling, even if it was just in his head, but he couldn't seem to help himself. He didn't want Akane to hate him again.

But Akane just stared at him, until he felt ready to scream, just to break the silence. 'What?', he wanted to ask. 'What are you thinking?' But he kept his mouth shut and waited instead.

"So... You're a girl?" she finally asked, and Ranma felt all his muscles that he hadn't even realized he had tensed relax a bit.

"Yeah."

She looked at him for a moment longer, before shrugging.

"Okay."

He watched her turn away, a bit disbelieving. But she looked... fine, for the most part. A lot less shaken than he would have thought he'd be.

Ranma settled back into her chair, allowing her body to relax a bit more. Maybe everything was actually okay for once. Or maybe it would all backfire later. But either way, for now, it looked like Akane accepted him. At that, Ranma felt her body relax the rest of the way on its own, like a small weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

After that, the three of them changed to a more normal topic, discussing the idea of Ranma attending school with Akane the following day and whether the principal would allow another new applicant so soon.

-Rain/Akane-

_That night, Rain dreamed about flashes of red and black hair on a person she felt she knew. The face was shadowed, but the voice was warm, caring. Calling her, with a tone that seemed both masculine and feminine at the same time, as if the two were combined. Laughing, as if the person was happy just to be with her. The person was so close, so close..._

She woke gently, but suddenly at the same time. Immediately, she knew that she was no longer dreaming, but her eyes were still closed.

Slowly, she put a hand to her head and opened her eyes. Why had she woken up? Why hadn't her dream finished?

She let her hand drop back down. She felt like she had been so close... so close to figuring out who the person was. But, it had only been a dream.

She rolled to her side and stared off into space.

Then.. why had it felt so real, even though it had been so vague?

-

The next day, Ranma and Rain left for school together. Mrs. Smithy had managed to get Ranma enrolled overnight, because of "special conditions" regarding Rain.

-Ranma-school-

They were in the gym, playing volleyball. Or, make that, supposed to be. All the girls were basically talking, and only a few were actually practicing. Those that were were probably on the volleyball team.

He had been careful to go in after everyone else had already changed and left, so that 1) if Akane ever did regain her memory, she couldn't accuse him of being a pervert, and 2) so that he wouldn't knock himself out running into an open locker door, because there was no way that he was going to sneak a peek on those girls when he had no right to and would've had to walk around with his (her) eyes closed the whole time. It was just wrong, and he tried to avoid looking at such things whenever possible, despite what Akane thought about him. Or had thought about him. Now, he wasn't so sure what she thought.

He sneaked a peek at Akane, who was tossing a volleyball of her own up and down, spinning it a little bit each time. Mrs. Smithy had said that there was no excuse for him not to go to school now, and he had agreed because this way, at least he could keep a closer eye on Akane. Playing the part of a schoolgirl was a small price to pay for that.

A bit bored, she called over to Akane.

"Hey. Toss me that ball for a minute, 'k?"

Akane stared at her for a second, and then at the volleyball in her hands, before tossing it to him.

"Here you go. What do you want it for?"

Ranma caught it easily and twirled it on her finger before hitting it casually with the back of her hand, making it airborne.

"Nothing. I'm just bored."

She caught it again, and tossed it up higher, aware of Akane staring at her. But finally, the silence was too much to handle.

"What?" he asked, turning to the girl. Akane stared back. Her eyes shifted to the volleyball before turning back to Ranma with a smile.

"Hey, do you want to play volleyball?"

Ranma grinned at her words. Well, this should be interesting.

-Rain/Akane-

She dove for the ball for the third time in five minutes, catching it just in time with her fist to keep it in the air and off the floor. With one more hit, she managed to clear the net. But with one move, Ranma sent the ball back over, and she had to run to catch it again, this time reaching it before it hit chest level.

She laughed, feeling sweat begin to appear on her forehead and arms. The adrenaline that she hadn't allowed to escape during her bout in the dojo was fueling her now, urging her on, and she loved the feeling, the rush, it gave her. She hadn't been sure what would happen when she asked Ranma to play, afraid that Ranma wouldn't be able to keep up with her because if she had figured out anything from sparring with the dojo master, it was that she wasn't normal.

But Ranma seemed to be keeping up with her fine. If anything, she seemed to be doing better than Rain was. The girl wasn't even breathing hard yet, but she had a huge grin on her face and seemed to be having a lot of fun all the same.

"Haha!" Ranma shouted, after spiking the ball hard enough that it hit the ground before Rain could get to it. She pumped her fist into the air. "In your face! Beat that! I rule! I'm the king!"

But then the girl stopped suddenly, as if a switch had been thrown, and stared at her with a weird look on her face that looked like a mixture of fear and hesitation, with her fist still in the air, and it was too much for Rain to take. She burst out laughing, and had to hold her sides, which began to hurt from the combination of laughing and running around, chasing the volleyball. She laughed until tears came to her eyes and, after awhile, she picked up the ball and spiked it back over to Ranma.

-Ranma-

They were the last ones in the changing room. He had chose to stay behind after the other girls to help clean up the volleyballs so that he wouldn't have to walk into the changing room with everyone there. Akane had gone in ahead and changed with the others, then waited for him, graciously turning her back as he changed. Because even though they were both girls at the moment, Ranma felt an unnatural need for modestly. Probably because of Akane being the way she was now. Either way, he was glad that she had waited for him and hadn't gone on ahead, leaving him behind.

As she took off her gym shirt, she thought back to class, when they had been playing volleyball. Akane had really surprised her. The minute he had realized that he was gloating, he had frozen and looked over at her, sure that she'd be angry and ready to hit him. But she hadn't. Instead, she had laughed. _Laughed._

Ranma shook her head. This Akane was a mystery to him. He hadn't expected anything from her that had happened so far. Akane wouldn't have fought so well against the dojo master, wouldn't have accepted his curse so easily, wouldn't have laughed at his blatant bragging like that. He didn't know what to think anymore. She had changed. What had happened to her before she had lost her memory? Which brought up another topic...

Ranma stole a glance at Akane's back, which was still turned to give him privacy changing.

What had _made_ her loose her memory in the first place?

A sound came from above her, and Ranma, having a sneaking suspicion to what it was, looked up slowly, afraid to be right, just as she was doused with hot water.

Two voices floated through the wall from the girl's bathroom to them.

"No, don't use that faucet. The hot water pipe is busted!"

"Too late. It's okay. The pipe goes over the changing room. No one should be in there now."

"What about the two transfers? I didn't see them leave the room yet."

"You're right. Do you think that we should go check on them?"

Akane began to turn around.

"Ranma? I think we should-"

"Wait, don't turn around yet!" Ranma shouted, a bit frantic. Thankfully, he had pulled off his gym shorts just before he had been splashed.

In record time, he pulled on his regular pants, which he had rolled up under the school uniform's long skirts for such as occasion (he was going to just wear his boxers, but Mrs. Smithy had pointed out to him that if he did change back into a guy, running around an all girl's school in just boxers wouldn't be a very good idea), shoved the rest of his gym clothes into his locker, and grabbed Akane just as the footsteps reached the door.

-Rain/Akane-

She felt herself hauled into the air just as the sound of the tumblers in the door (that signaled the turning of the doorknob) reached her ears, and the next thing she knew, she was hanging outside the school window. Well, not really hanging so much as leaning on Ranma, who was the only thing stopping her from hitting the ground a good five feet below. All her weight was on him, who had half a foot on the windowsill and the other foot on the slight decorative ridge that surrounded the school wall (which ran under the first story windows), his hand holding the side of the window. They were blocked from view by the light blue curtains that hung on the windows, but if anyone happened to be in the back yard of the school while they were there, they'd have some serious explaining to do.

It was then that she noticed that Ranma had turned back into a guy, was topless, and his upper body and hair (and, now that she thought about it and noticed, his pants) was dripping wet.

"Um..." she began, unsure of how to continue.

"Yeah." he answered for her. "Hot water changes me back into a guy."

"Oh." was all that she could say. Her mind seemed to be blank, unable to think. But slowly, the wheels began to turn again, just in time to hear who had opened the door.

"No one's here." a female voice said from inside the changing room. "I guess they left."

"But look at this mess on the floor! I told you not to turn on that hot water! How are we going to explain a broken pipe to the principle?" a second female voice asked.

"We'll think of something. At least no one got wet. We'd be in more trouble then." the first voice said dismissively, and then there was the sound of a door closing, and silence as the voices, already muffled, faded.

Rain felt Ranma expel a breath that she hadn't even realized he had been holding, and felt his body relax. But his firm hold on her didn't loosen, and she didn't slip even a centimeter, for which she was glad. She really didn't want to fall five feet. It wouldn't kill her, but still... She'd rather not.

Slowly, the events began to piece themselves together in her mind. Ranma had gotten splashed with the hot water from the broken pipe and had put on his pants before grabbing her and going out the window, all before the two girls in the next room had time to open the door.

She looked up at him, whose eyes were still trained on the inside of the room, listening for any indication that the girls would return. What speed and precision and care. He hadn't been rough with her, even though the situation definitely called for it, nor had he fallen out of the window, and even now he was balanced precariously on its edge, but showed no strain in his body from holding her or him from falling. In fact, it didn't even seem to need a lot of concentration on his part, as he seemed to be completely focused on the room they had just recently occupied.

"I think it's okay to go back inside now." Ranma said, startling her out of her thoughts, and then surprising her in general as he swung single-handedly into the room while still holding her tight.

Rain felt her feet gently settle on the ground, and only when she took a step back did he release his hold on her, as if he had been afraid of her stumbling.

She looked up at him, speechless. The dojo master had been something- fast and strong and skilled. But Ranma seemed to be in another category altogether. She had never heard of anyone who could brag about doing what he had just done. And he had never mentioned being able to do any of it in front of her before.

Ranma walked over to his locker, and began pulling out his school clothes, oblivious that she was staring at him.

In fact, it has seemed so natural to him that she somehow got the feeling that he didn't even realize how extraordinary it was. She was about to smile and think that yeah, of course he didn't, when she caught herself. She knew nothing about him. Nothing except what he had told her. So what had made her so sure that she knew what he did and didn't think about?

-

They got through the rest of the school day without incident (after she had run to the girl's bathroom to get some cold water to change Ranma back with), and returned back to tell Mrs. Smithy how their day went. It wasn't until she was doing her homework that something else unexpected happened to her.

She had been working on math problem sixteen when the door to her room opened and, after she had given the okay, Ranma walked in, once again a guy.

"Hey... Um... Do you want me to train you?"

-Ranma-

Akane got a blank, kind of confused look on her face at his question.

"Huh?" she asked finally.

He scratched the back of his head, feeling self-conscious. "Well, you know, Mrs. Smithy told me that the reason you guys had gone to the dojo in the first place was because she had hoped that you could learn there, but after you held your own so well against that guy, she wasn't so sure. So I offered to train you. I have... ahem... I mean, I've been doing martial arts for a long time."

He shrugged.

"I could probably help you more than he could at this point."

He saw the wheels turning in her head as she thought about his offer.

"Okay. Sure."

-Rain/Akane-

She found herself facing Ranma outside, in the backyard to the apartment that Mrs. Smithy owned. After he had offered to train her, she had thought back to how he had moved during the changing room incident, about how it had seemed more natural for him to hang out the window, holding her, then trying to hide somewhere inside the room, and of how fast he had managed it all. She had remembered him watching her spar with the dojo master, and the look in his eyes as he had watched them.

Now that she thought about it, she had caught a glimpse of him once as she had moved around, evading attacks, and his eyes had been sharp, watching every move of the dojo masters', and of hers, with a look that seemed to see every action of their bodies. She was curious to find out just how good he was. He was around her age. At their age, no one should be that good. But then again, she didn't seem to be normal either.

"Okay." she said, adjusting the weight on her feet to prepare herself. "What do we do now?"

-Ranma-

He watched her shift from foot to foot, no doubt a bit nervous. He didn't blame her. After all, she didn't remember that he had spent all his life, from his earliest memory, training with his father, fighting for food and the like in the wild, living in a tent on the ground. She didn't remember wanting him to train her ever since they met. He didn't want to rush things.

Ranma looked up at the sky to think about that, only to realize that it was already dusk.

"Actually, maybe we should start this tomorrow, when there's more light. I don't want one of us to stumble over a rock in the dark."

Akane looked a bit hesitant, but she finally nodded her head. "Okay. Tomorrow."

She turned and began to walk inside, while Ranma stared at her retreating back, a number of emotions rolling through him.

-Rain/Akane-

_She dreamed about strong arms holding her, far above the ground. Although they were above all the houses, she didn't feel afraid at all. She felt... safe... and warm. _

_Surprised by this thought, she looked up, into the face of the one holding her. Black bangs and sunlight hid his eyes from view, and his hair was long enough to be tied into a braid at the back of his head. He smiled down at her and said something, but although his lips moved, she heard not voice. _

_Feeling compelled by the words she couldn't hear, she turned her head to look at the view their height gave them. It was a vivid scene of rooftops, in a place she knew but couldn't identify. Somewhere she had been many times before. _

_Wind blew her hair and caressed her face, and she felt happy, as the warm sun and warm arms around her made her feel safe and secure, as if she was... home..._

Rain woke suddenly, her eyes opening before she had even thought about doing so. She stared up at the ceiling, her mind racing, her heart pounding. Another dream. It had been less vivid than the last, but somehow, felt just as real.

She shook her head, sitting up and putting a hand to her temple.

Why was she having these dreams?

Sighing, Rain let her hand drop to rest on her thigh. Today was Saturday, no school. She blinked slowly, staring at nothing really, although the rays of the morning sun on the floor was in her line of vision. Suddenly, she remembered. Today Ranma said he'd start training her.

Quickly, she got up to change her clothes. She didn't want to make him wait.

-Ranma-

He stood once again in the back area, facing Akane and wondering about his decision to train her.

He had told her that he didn't fight girls, and he meant it, but Akane didn't remember anything about him and besides, he was just going to teach her some basic techniques that she had forgotten. He had seen her spar against the dojo master. Her body remembered everything that she had conditioned into it, but it did it all on instinct. He didn't want to think about what could happen if she went up against someone stronger and better than Mr. Tsuruga, where she'd have to think about what to do. She would draw a blank, and a second would be all it took for her opponent to gain the upper hand.

Besides, he felt like he owed it to her to be nice to her, and he didn't want to upset her by having her find out about his fighting abilities the same way that she had found out his curse- by accident rather than him telling her. Before, Akane had wanted him to trust her. And though he had been dense to the request before, he wasn't now. He would start by doing for her what she had always wanted him to do- train her. Her life must seem upside-down to her right now, with the memory loss and no friends or family around to help her except him. The least he could do was give her something familiar.

"Okay, so the first thing we'll do is work on helping you remember what you can do, so that in a fight, you won't have to rely on your body reacting on its own. If you know that you can do it, and we practice a bit with it, you can do it on command, like you use to be able to."

-

A few hours later, Ranma left Akane to take her bath, while he sat down for some tea with Mrs. Smithy. He wasn't really sweating, if at all, but she had quite a lot from all the work she went through, retrying all the basic techniques that she knew so that she could do them on command. Also, her clothes were dirtier than his, because he only had to show her the basic ground moves twice at most, while she had practiced each at least ten times.

"So, how did her first lesson go?" the old woman asked him as she poured his tea.

"Really good." he answered, leaning back into his chair. "I had always assumed that Akane knew all of the basics, even though I hadn't seen the beginning of her training, because she could do the more complex things. I'm glad I was right. The problem with teaching yourself is that you can easily not know about a few of the basics. But then again, her father is the master of his own dojo, so I guess it was unlikely, though I don't know if he ever taught her."

He took a sip of his tea.

"I'm glad she knows everything, though. I want to move onto other things soon, because although you can get pretty far with instinct sometimes, and she's gotten farther than I thought she could go, it could get her into trouble if she comes across any real opponent. If you don't have any formal training in the arts, then it'll desert you when you need it the most. Instinct only gets you so far in a fight, and personally, I think that she was lucky that she had such good instincts to begin with."

"That she does have." Mrs. Smithy agreed, sipping her own tea. "Taking down a crook like she did, you'd be hard up to argue otherwise."

"But that's the problem." Ranma said, seeing an opening to tell her what he needed her to know before it was too late. He didn't want to loose Mrs. Smithy's trust. And although she had accepted him easily enough with the curse, even though he hadn't told her about it first, there was no guarantee that she would be so accepting about one of the other secrets that he was keeping from her. He had to tell her one of them now.

"I don't want to cause you trouble, and it's the last thing that Akane needs right now..." he began, staring down at his cup.

"Oh no. You're no trouble at all. In fact, you've been very helpful. Especially to Rain." Mrs. Smithy interjected, trying to reassure him.

'You may not think that in a few minutes.' he thought to himself. But out loud, he continued

"You see, the thing is, I'm... kind of involved with several people. And they're all really strong..."

"Oh dear." Mrs. Smithy said, a hand going to her chest. "You're not in trouble with the yakuza, are you?"

Ranma had to look up and smile at her for that.

"No way. But... The thing is..."

Ranma sighed, scratching his head near his temple as he tried to think of a way to explain everything to her.

"Look, the thing is, we may be having some trouble soon, and I'm afraid that Akane may be caught in the middle of it. I hate to say this, but I'm not exactly the luckiest guy in Japan, and sooner or later the fact that I've only been having minimum bad luck is going to catch up to me, and I don't want Akane to get hurt. And if I don't teach, or re-teach, her enough stuff before they come, that could happen."

"You really care about Rain, don't you?" Mrs. Smithy said, her expression soft as she stared at him.

Ranma felt himself blush, and ducked his head. "Well, yeah." He mumbled, embarrassed. "We're good friends."

"Well then, don't worry about it." the old woman added, reaching across to pat his hand. "At least she's not completely helpless, and with her instincts and your training, she should be fine. Besides, I have faith that you'll protect her."

Ranma felt his face grow more red at her praise and the implications in her sentence, but at the same time, his mind was worried. 'Protect her, like I protected her against everyone else who kidnapped her?' Those times, it had been an eventuality, always an eventuality, that he had rescued her. He didn't want this one to be too, whether or not she was actually kidnapped. This time, he'd be better at protecting her.

-

By the next day, Akane was all caught up on the basics (which was a lot easier since he didn't have to teach any of them, just make sure that she could consciously so them), and Ranma decided to move onto more complex stuff.

"Okay." He said to Akane. "So since you now remember all the basics, the next thing would normally be techniques. Well, actually, you would be practicing things like strength training and speed and stuff, but, as I recall, you're strength's good and you speed's pretty okay."

He caught the look on her face saying that he revealed more information than she had figured out herself yet, and so she was doubting it, and decided that it was best to move on.

"But it's your technique that I'm worried about the most. If you can't remember anything and act just on instinct, than you can only stand and wait for your opponent to attack you, or you could run headfirst at him and hope that your body reacts." He looked directly into her eyes to make sure that she understood. "You can't just run headlong towards an opponent. And although I know that you haven't been doing that lately, I don't want you to find yourself in a situation like that and have no other options. So first, we'll work on catching your opponent off-guard. Okay?"

Akane nodded her confirmation.

"Okay. So, the first way you can do that is by..."

-

Two and a half hours later, they had run through most of the evasive, counter, and side moves that Ranma either knew or thought that she had known, and so far he had only had to teach her one for the first time. They were up to physically pulling an opponent off-guard when there's an opening in their attack, and Ranma was having some problems.

"No no. You have to pull on the arm like this, or your opponent can still gain his footing."

"Like this?" she tried again, but still weakly, as if she was afraid to yank too hard.

"No. You have to pull them like _this_." Ranma pulled her arm hard, sending her his way.

Akane stepped in an attempt to regain her footing, and found herself propelled even faster forward, because she was too unbalanced.

Ranma watched, as if in slow motion, as she began to fall. He crouched a bit to catch her, but hadn't expected her to try to regain her footing. Pushing off of her foot by accident with that step, Akane's body rose slightly, and kept falling forward. And, as her body collided with his, so did their lips.

-end chapter.

end chapter notations: Okay, so I made them kiss after all. Sue me. (Don't really. I have no money. Plus, it wasn't really a very exciting kiss.) Also, I took what one reviewer said to heart (sorta) and made the whole falling thing less confusing by just putting one viewpoint and then the other viewpoint instead of trying to do them simultaneously (although I did it in just this chapter instead of in this _and_ the last chapter, as was suggested. I just didn't want to have to resubmit the other chapter all over again, and apoligize for my laziness. But I think it turned out okay).

I'm sorry if it was confusing, the viewpoint thing in the last chapter. I know it was. Actually, that's kind of what I was hoping for when I wrote it. Not necessarily to be confusing, though, but a bit jumbled, because everything was supposed to happen fast, and everything was reaction and instinct and no time to think (she was falling, you know?).

Except I fear that I made _readers_ think too much by reading it (and ,most likely, reading it over when you couldn't understand it in one sitting), and for that, I am sorry. Bear with me. Even though I have, what, ten stories posted, I'm still a new writer. With your comments and help, hopefully I'll figure things out quickly. :) Thanks to all those who always put in their ten cents, and please feel more than free to continue to do so. Input is wonderful, and critics help me improve my work.

By the way, the reason I have Rain/Akane have such a powerful reaction to looking into Ranma's eyes when in the manga she's unfazed is because I figure they actually do look at each other like that and she either takes it for granted, or it happened so gradually that she didn't notice (the next time you make eye contact with one of your friends, think about it. if it's someone you know really well, doesn't it feel like more than for someone you've met recently? (most of the time)).

Oh, and last minute note- When I refer to Ranma while he is in his cursed girl form, it'll still mostly be a "him", "he", etc. It's just easier on me, I think, because for some parts, when "she" is with Akane, it'd be confusing to figure out which "she" I'm talking about. I use "him" instead of "her" whenever I think that it may be too confusing for the readers. Hopefully, I hope this doesn't confuse you more as a result. Because, when I can, I'll be using "she" and "her" instead of "he" and "him." Plus, it'd just be too much to check when proofreading. I already check each new chapter at least three times before updating, and although spelling does sometimes escape me because I normally work on these things early early morning or late at night (and because I'm not a good speller and forget to use Microsoft Word), it wouldn't really be worth it at that point. Sorry. But on low sleep, I normally just don't care about checking for stuff like that anymore, and it'll probably be less confusing if I just do it my way.

I also apoligize for the end of chapter notes for being so long, but thank you to those who read them. I like it when people take the time to read them, because then it makes me feel like not just my story, but my opinion matter. So thank you. (Also, if you haven't noticed, (and I didn't until I looked back on previous chapters to find something that I had previously wrote) this chapter is significantly longer than all is previous ones. I hope that makes up for the long wait, which I'm truly sorry about, by the way. I didn't expect it to take _this_ long. :( ) If you want shorter chpaters next time, just tell me. This probably would've gotten out sooner (or, at least, most of it would have), if I had done that.


	8. The Break in the Chaos Factor

Memory of Rain and Lightening Chapter Nine- nihongoneko- rated T (just in case)

Akane fanfic- I'll Remember; Lost Memory and Lightening (I call it an Akane fanfic because it revolves around Akane Tendo, mainly.)

Summary: A girl wakes up in a forest clearing, with no idea who she is. She walks to the nearest town, and no one recognizes her. But she stays there and starts to build a life there as she searches for herself. Now a boy has appeared, claiming to know her.

Disclaimer: I do not own Akane, Ranma, or any of the other Rumiko Takahashi characters from Ranma 1/2, nor do I own the storyline. Sadly, I'm just not that good.

to my readers: thank you everyone for being so patient again. I was thrilled with the responses that I got to my last chapter. A lot of you seemed to like it, and nothing makes my day more than something like that. As always, here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy it too. I apologize to those that thought the last chapter was too long, because I've read stories like that, and I know what it's like. Especially if you like the story, but at the same time you're thinking, 'when is this chapter going to end? If I stop reading now to take a break and pick it up again later, I'll loose my place and have to search the whole thing for it.', etc. etc. I'll try to consciously avoid doing that to you all. At the same time, though, I don't want to put out a short chapter after having you all wait so long.

Main Character List: Rain (Akane, who has lost her memory), Mrs. Smithy (the old woman who has given Akane a place to stay), Ranma (Akane's fiancé who has come looking for her)

Now, on with the story...

-9-

Chapter Nine- The Break in the Chaos Factor

previously in chapters...

_Akane stepped in an attempt to regain her footing, and found herself propelled even faster forward, because she was too unbalanced._

_Ranma watched, as if in slow motion, as she began to fall. He crouched a bit to catch her, but hadn't expected her to try to regain her footing. Pushing off of her foot by accident with that step, Akane's body rose slightly, and kept falling forward. And, as her body collided with his, so did their lips._

now continuing with the story...

Ranma felt himself freeze up, prepared for the punch that he knew must be coming. Akane was gonna_ kill_ him.

Half-seconds passed, and nothing happened. Slowly, cautiously, Ranma eased out from under her, until he was completely out. And then, as if fearing for his life, he shot up and ran.

-Rain/Akane-

She stared in the direction that Ranma had run off in, and after a brief moment of shock, she smiled. A chuckle escaped her lips as she brought herself to her feet.

_Well, that certainly caught Ranma off guard. I've never seen someone run so fast before. It was like he was running for his life. _

A brief image flashed through her mind then, and Rain paused, surprised. It was gone in a flash, but this time, she could vaguely remember it. A boy about her age, sticking his tongue out at her. And an annoying masculine voice saying something to her

_'-cho chick!'_

Rain felt something in her mind stay with the memory, some feeling that she couldn't identify. A sudden pain shot through her temples, and she felt her legs buckle out from under her, falling to a sitting position on the floor and clutching her head in pain. A sudden flash of light crossed her vision, followed by a loud booming sound, quickly accompanied by the sound of rain hitting the building and ground. Rain looked up. It was storming.

_A flash flood? s_he wondered, slowly lowering her hands as the pain receded. Her gaze stayed glued to the drops falling in quick succession outside, as if she couldn't look away. Another flash of lightening appeared, followed almost immediately with more thunder.

_But... It was clear a second ago._

Slowly, she came to her feet again, for some reason feeling a bit unsteadily, even though she also felt a burst of energy. She made her way inside, barely noticing the water as it drenched her clothes.

Rain woke up the next morning with remnants of her dream still clinging to the edges of her mind. It was vague in detail, but she remembered that someone was in it, someone important...

Just as she was trying to piece together what she could remember about the dream, what happened last night came back to her-

she had _kissed_ Ranma.

Embarrassed, Rain turned to her side, staring at the wall.

Why should she be flustered by that? For one, Ranma was a girl! And secondly... she didn't know Ranma well enough to take it to mean anything. Besides... it had been an accident, hadn't it?

Rain shook her head, turning onto her back again. It had been a product of circumstance. A fluke. A... mistake. After all, Ranma was a girl, so it didn't matter, did it? Her first kiss...

But even as she thought this, Rain's mind protested the excuses, the explanations, and the facts. She didn't know why, but the whole thing made her chest feel funny.

-Ranma-

He couldn't stop himself from glancing over at her again. It was strange. Weird. _Unnatural._ Since seeing him this morning- the first time she had seen him after that... incident yesterday- Akane hadn't hit him or yelled at him or anything. She was acting... normal, like the kiss had never happened.

He blushed.

Of course, it had been a complete accident, but still...

he glanced over at her again

He had expected her to do _something_, not to just brush it off.

Ranma stared back at his breakfast (they hadn't yet left for school- it was still too early), while last night's events came back to him once more. He felt embarrassed for running from her like that, and had wanted to apologize, but she hadn't even cared about it enough to mention it this morning.

The implications of it hurt, but even with his chest aching, his mind kept spinning.

The last time that Akane had lost her memory had been when Shampoo had used that shampoo on her. But even then, Akane had still reacted to him. Well, no, actually, she ignored him, but she still reacted to whatever happened to him. When Shampoo had come, she had clobbered him as always. So why didn't she hit him for kissing her this time, no matter how much of an accident it was?

Ranma ran a hand through his bangs, trailing it back to rub the back of his head.

Akane didn't care about if something was an accident. She only cared about what happened. Actions were what she cared about, what she paid attention to, not the reasons or explanations.

That's why he was worried this time. Not only had she not done anything to him, but she was barely acting like herself. Sure, she was as nice as any day that she had been in a good mood, but she didn't get angry anymore. And although he enjoyed not getting hit everyday, he knew that it also meant that somehow, _this _amnesia was different than the other one.

And worse, he didn't know how to cure it.

They came home after a relatively normal day of school. Not normal for Ranma, which was still something he way trying to adjust to ever since coming here, but normal to regular people. Aside from the fact that he was playing the part of a school_girl_, no one came barging in through the walls or windows, or declaring their love to him or Akane, or picking a fight, or challenging each other, or... anything. It was quiet, peaceful, and slightly dull and boring.

After setting his bag and books down (Mrs. Smithy had made sure that they had gotten all the required books, and had bought them each a school bag, which had been more than generous of her. Truthfully, Ranma wasn't sure how he was going to pay her back, seeing as any money he ever had had always been stolen by his Pops and he was perpetually broke), Ranma changed and moved to the kitchen to boil some water. Being a girl wasn't weird anymore, he had long past gotten over the curse (for the most part), but he still preferred to be himself- as a guy.

Just as he poured the water over his head, Akane came into the room.

"Oh, Ranma. I was... looking for you." She said, a bit taken back by the change. She still hadn't gotten completely used to it yet.

She met his eyes, and Ranma felt saddened by the fact that she seemed completely normal. If anything, her looking at him like that served to remind him of what she had forgotten- which, in this case, was everything. He couldn't imagine how alone she must've felt when she had first realized that she couldn't remember anything.

"Ranma?"

Ranma shook off the thought, and the feelings that came with it, surprised that he had drifted off into his own world when Akane was right in front of him. He looked into her eyes again, determined to leave the deep thinking until later, when he was alone.

"Yes, Akane?" he asked, in what he had meant to be in a normal voice, but which turned out to be almost a whisper.

Akane shifted from foot to foot, looking a bit nervous.

"Will you... spar with me again?"

Ranma's mind immediately replayed the last time they had sparred, and felt his face heat up at the memory. He felt his heart rate speed up too, and knew without a doubt that he couldn't risk something like that happening again. He began to back away, and before he knew it, his feet had carried him backwards, almost all of the way out of the room. Embarrassed, he stuttered out an apology before beating a hasty retreat.

"I'msorrybutI'."

And with that, he ran out of the room, hoping that Akane hadn't seen how red his face had gotten.

-Rain/Akane-

She stood there, a bit confused. Ranma had just run away from her, as if... as if he was in a hurry or... or afraid of her.

She scratched her head, turning to look around the room as she tried to figure that action out. She felt sad that Ranma had refused to spar with her. In fact... and she rubbed a spot on her chest at the feeling... she felt sadder about it than she thought that she should have. She had been looking forward to sparring with him, yes, but she had also... wanted to spend some time with him.

-Ranma-

He leaned against the wall, his hand over his heart, which was still racing. Slowly, the hand traveled to his cheek, which, when he felt it, was still hot, letting him know that he was still blushing. The minute Akane had asked him to spar, he had turned into a complete moron. What was wrong with him? He knew that she wouldn't hit him, and that it was less likely that she was going to if something else happened when they sparred, but still, he couldn't stop the fear from coursing through his body in that one moment.

As his heart rate began to slow down, Ranma replayed that moment over and over in his head. Something felt off about what he had just thought. It hadn't been just fear that had made him run, nor embarrassment that he remembered the... the kiss. There had also been some other emotion, something else that he had felt. But... what had it been?

-Rain/Akane-

The more she thought about his refusal, the sadder she got. He had just run out on her, as if... as if... he had better things to do than help her.

Slowly, Rain felt her sadness retreat as she became more upset at the thought, even though she had no idea why she jumped to that conclusion.

"Rain, have you seen Ranma? I was wondering if he knew-" Mrs. Smithy said, coming into the room, and stopped mid-sentence as she spotted the girl.

"Rain?"

The thoughts in Rain's head began to get darker as she got madder, and suddenly, she wasn't just upset- she was furious at Ranma for ditching her.

A flash of lightening lit up the room from the window, followed quickly by thunder, then the sounds of a heavy downpour of rain.

Rain looked up, out the window, surprised and startled out of her thoughts. The sky had been completely clear when she and Ranma had walked home from school. It sure did seem to storm a lot in this town.

"Rain, are you alright?"

She started at the voice, for the first time realizing that she wasn't alone.

"Mrs. Smithy! I-I'm sorry. I didn't realize that you were here."

"That's perfectly fine."

More thunder and lightening followed her words, and Rain dug her nails into her hand as she tried to ease the turmoil in her mind enough to smile at the kind woman who had taken her in. But she couldn't stop her mind from returning to her dark thoughts. Another flash of lightening cut through the sky, followed by another boom of thunder.

"My, we've been having a lot of bad weather recently, haven't we?" Mrs. Smithy commented, glancing at the window and back at the girl, who seemed lost in her own little world, her gaze inward.

"Mmm." Rain replied, her voice distracted, her head also turning towards the window, seeing but not seeing the drops as they fell against the pane, beating out a rhythmic tattoo on the glass.

The older woman stared at her, unnoticed even though they were in the same room. It wasn't hard for her to figure out that the young girl's mood was down in the dumps. In an effort to soothe Rain's hurt feelings (although Mrs. Smithy didn't know why Rain was feeling how she was, she was wise enough to see it clearly), she put on a kind smile and turned back to the girl.

"I have an idea. Why don't we make something to cheer us up from the gloomy atmosphere outside?"

Mrs. Smithy started gathering up ingredients, feigning oblivion to Rain's mental state, stepping around the girl to collect everything that she needed. She couldn't think of a better way to cheer someone up than to spend quality time with them- everyone needed to be around people to lift their spirits in times of trouble, or their thoughts would be allowed to roam free, twisting to the negative as thoughts usually did when you were depressed, no matter how much you tried to think positively.

"Why don't I show you how to make chicken soup today? It'd be perfect for this kind of weather. Besides" she continued, sorting and placing the ingredients and utensils and cookware for easy access and usage order.

"I really do make the best in the entire town- Tsuruga told me so. But then, he's always liked my cooking." the older woman said with a smile.

Lightening flashed while she bowed her head down to chop the celery, followed quickly by thunder, and in that brief moment, Rain felt a flashback enter her mind- too quick to catch or recognize. She immediately froze, waiting, hoping that it would come back, and as she looked inwardly into her mind to try to remember what she hadn't even caught a good glimpse of- almost there but not quite, she felt her hands grow warm, and, for a brief instant... hot like she had stuck her hand in a fire. Startled, she looked down at said hand.

"My, that was close. You know what they say- the closer the sound of thunder to the flash of lightening, the closer the storm is." Mrs. Smithy said, seeming oblivious to what had just happened.

"..."

Rain barely heard her, and didn't have the consciousness at the moment to reply. She continued to stare at her hand, wondering what the flash of heat had been, or could have meant.

_What __was__ that?_

-Ranma-

He looked outside the window, wishing that he had decided against going outside to clear his head as he squeezed the water out of his now red pigtail. It was another storm- a sure sign that trouble was coming, considering how it had hit so suddenly, pouring buckets down on him as he sat on the roof. Stuff like that only happened to him right before something bad- and it always seemed to bring trouble for him. Well, at least Akane knew he changed into a girl, so he didn't have to worry about that.

Shaking "her" wet head, Ranma grabbed a change of clothes and headed off to the bath, intent on cleaning off the mud that had stuck to him from the roof. He should really ask Mrs. Smithy about that. Or maybe he should just clean it himself later on, if the rain didn't wash it all away.

Sparing one last glance at the storm, Ranma made his way out of his temporary room and down the hall. He really hoped that the sudden shower didn't mean that his bad luck was coming back to him now. With that way it usually was, Akane would probably be caught in the middle. And this time, she didn't know who anyone was. No matter how good a fighter she was now, if she didn't recognize anyone, they might take it as their opportunity to try to get Akane for good, before she figured out that they were an enemy.

_Ranma was walking through a town. It seemed vaguely familiar, but it wasn't anywhere in Nerima that he knew, and he had been through quite a bit of the area for one reason or another, at some time. He was still searching for Akane. He had to find her, before Mr. Tendo realized that she was gone._

_A girl passed him. He didn't think anything of it. Many girls, as well as other people, had passed by him already. Suddenly, his brain registered, a bit late, that she had short hair so black it had blue highlights. And her eyes had been brown- the first girl that he had seen with that combination. He spun around so quickly, he almost made himself dizzy. No way. It couldn't be..._

_"Akane!"_

_The girl turned to the sound of the voice._

_"I'm not Akane. I'm Rain."_

_She tried to turn away from him, and he grabbed her arm. She couldn't just walk away. He knew who she was._

_The girl swung her head around and glared at him an oh so familiar glare._

_"Let me go!" she demanded, trying to jerk her arm free. He only held tighter._

_"Akane, you have to come back! Everyone's gonna be looking for you! Yer dad's gonna worry!"_

_The girl looked up at him, fury in her eyes._

_"What are you talking about? Let me go!"_

_"Akane!"_

_She bowed her head, body tense, her bangs hiding her eyes from view. He saw tears streak down her cheeks._

_"The Akane you know is gone."_

_Suddenly, she collapsed, and Ranma, shocked, could only watch her fall. She hit the ground with a thud._

_"Ak...ane...?"_

_Shadows emerged from behind her still form. They stepped into the light- Shampoo with her bonbori, Ukyo with her battle spatula, Kodachi with her gymnastics ribbon. All three weapons had blood on them. Akane's blood._

_"Ke ke ke. Akane too stupid to know Shampoo not her friend." The Amazon said with a self-satisfied smirk on her face, looking down at the body, the bombroi held in both her hands._

_"Sugar, you shouldn't have tried looking for her. She doesn't remember you, or us." Ukyo said gently and firmly, as she wiped off the spatula head._

_"Wahahahahaha!" Kodachi laughed behind her hand, her other hand loosely holding the ribbon handle at her side._

_His sight began to fade, and their collective voices, also fading, barely reached him._

_"The Akane you know is gone."_

Ranma awoke with a start.

He placed a hand on his forehead, feeling the sweat as he pushed the bangs back from his face. Letting out a breath, he tried to calm his racing pulse, the feelings and emotions from the dream still seeming all too real, the events all too probable.

Ranma lowered his head, his hand sliding to finger touches on his temples. Kami, he hoped that it wasn't a premonition. First, the sudden storms began catching him off guard again, and now this. He had never gotten any warnings like this before. There was no way that it was coincidence. Very soon, Akane's nice, quiet, and peaceful life was going to be turned upside down again, because of him.

Letting out a deep sigh, he lay back down, his mind refusing to slow down to let him go back to sleep. He could leave town, and most likely whatever trouble that was brewing would follow him. But he didn't want to leave Akane here, without any explanation. And there was no way that he could explain it to her. It'd be best if he left, but... he didn't want to let her out of his sight again, afraid that she'd disappear once more.

His mind in turmoil, Ranma stared at the ceiling. He had to tell Mr. Tendo and the others eventually- that Akane had gone missing and that she had amnesia. But he kept hoping that it'd be temporary, kept hoping each morning that she'd see him at the breakfast table and remember. She was comfortable around him, but it wasn't the same. Sure they had always argued, but there had been a closeness between them before that was no longer there. They had gone through so much together in the past- why couldn't they overcome this? It didn't feel the same, with her being like this. If it was permanent... he didn't know how he'd be able to deal with that.

Rolling to his side, Ranma turned his gaze to the wall, feeling emotionally drained. He had gone through a lot during his life- training with Pops, getting cursed (more than once), endless battles and obstacles to overcome. But it had never left him feeling like this. A battle of emotions, where he had to remain so strong and optimistic, where he had to hope not on himself and his strength, but on Kami, and fate. It made him feel helpless. He didn't like the feeling.

The next day, Ranma's temporary good luck broke.

They were in school when it happened. The wall to the side of the classroom bumped out, and then shattered as it was hit with an all too familiar fist.

Students screamed, running to the other side of the room, but Ranma was too stunned to do much more than stand up. And, the redhead noticed, so did Akane.

"So this were Airen at. Shampoo come. Take home now."

The Amazon gave her a smile, which soon changed into a scowl as she realized who stood next to 'her Airen'.

"Why Kitchen-wrecker with Airen? Is no make sense."

Ranma tried to change the subject, hoping that the Amazon would get distracted if she turned her attention back to her.

"Sh- Shampoo, what are you doing here?"

"Shampoo come get Airen. Is too too lonely without Airen." Shampoo said, turning back to 'him' with a pout.

Ranma glanced back at Akane.

"I can't go back with you, Shampoo. I have something to do here."

The Amazon growled. not missing the glance he had given one of her 'obstacles'.

"Ranma forget, Shampoo track all through China! Shampoo think time you come be with Shampoo now!"

"I can't do that right now, Shampoo!" 'he' said, hoping to reason with his unwanted Chinese fiancée.

"You should go back to Nerima and tell everyone that I'm fine. I'll come home later."

The purple-haired girl turned her head to the side, expelling air from her mouth in an expression of stubbornness and defiance.

"Hmph! Shampoo no want to!"

Then, just what Ranma had hoped wasn't going to happen did.

Shampoo looked back at Akane and their gazes locked.

-Rain/Akane-

The strange purple-haired (and apparently very strong, since she had managed to break through the wall although, strangely, Rain wasn't afraid of her) girl looked over at her for the second time, and Rain felt the heat of her gaze. For some reason, this person was looking at her like she hated her, even though she didn't remember ever meeting her before.

A fragment of memory flashed through her head suddenly-

_a voice in broken Japanese saying _

_"Is obstacle! I kill!"_

_and then another, different voice saying _

_"According to Amazon law, if a warrior is defeated by a male, then she has to marry him."_

Rain blinked, the memory gone and again, too vague for it to help her figure anything out from it. One thing was for sure though- the memories were beginning to get stranger.

Ranma looked over at her, and their eyes connected. She was trying to tell her something with her expression, but Rain had no idea what it was.

She heard a shift in movement from the direction that the purple-haired girl was standing, and a collective scream come from the other students, alerting her to the danger a second before she saw it coming.

She turned just in time to see the purple-haired girl charging in her direction, her fist raised and a satisfied look of triumph on her face.

"If I kill, Ranma have to come Shampoo."

-end chapter.

end chapter notations: Sorry if this chapter was long too. I was ashamed that it took me so long to put this chapter out, so I didn't want to cheat you and give you too short a chapter. Also, I know Shampoo hasn't considered killing Akane since about the first 5 volumes she's appeared in, or even less, but I figured it'd be a good way to end the chapter with a cliffhanger. Hopefully, I'll update my next chapter in a shorter time period than it took to update this one. :(


	9. The Return of the Fiancées

Memory of Rain and Lightening Chapter Ten- nihogoneko- rated T (just in case)

Akane fanfic- I'll Remember; Lost Memory and Lightening (I call it an Akane fanfic because it revolves around Akane Tendo, mainly.)

Summary: A girl wakes up in a forest clearing, with no idea who she is. She walks to the nearest town, and no one recognizes her. But she stays there and starts to build a life there as she searches for herself. Now a boy has appeared, claiming to know her.

Disclaimer: I do not own Akane, Ranma, or any of the other Rumiko Takahashi characters from Ranma 1/2, nor do I own the storyline. Sadly, I'm just not that good.

Main Character List: Rain (Akane, who has lost her memory), Mrs. Smithy (the old woman who has given Akane a place to stay), Ranma (Akane's fiancé who has come looking for her), Shampoo (mysterious purple-haired girl that seems to know Ranma)  
Last minute note: Sorry if it's a bit hard to read when you get to Ranma's perspective. I had trouble with the fact that when Ranma is female, he still thinks of himself as a guy, even though at the moment he's female, so I put masculine pronouns in quotes so you are aware that 'he' is in girl form when that happens. I only put them where I thought it was necessary- when Ranma was directly thinking about 'his/her' gender or when you might be otherwise confused. Just let me know if it was too confusing or distracting and I'll try to find a new method to portray Ranma's gender changes.

Now, on with the story...

-10-

Chapter Ten- The Return of the Fiancées

previously in chapters...

_Ranma looked over at her, and their eyes connected. She was trying to tell her something with her expression, but Rain had no idea what it was._

_She heard a shift in movement from the direction that the purple-haired girl was standing, and a collective scream come from the other students, alerting her to the danger a second before she saw it coming. _

_She turned just in time to see the purple-haired girl charging in her direction, her fist raised and a satisfied look of triumph on her face. _

_"If I kill, Ranma have to come Shampoo."_

now continuing with the story...

'He' felt his blood run cold at the sight of the Amazon charging for Akane.

"Oh shit."

The redhead raced forward, closing the shorter distance between him and Akane faster than Shampoo could, and grabbed the stunned baka before she let herself get clobbered, jumping out the window to escape 'his' purple-haired fiancée before she could catch up to them.

"Ranma!" Shampoo shouted after him, having stopped her charge to stare after him from inside the classroom, oblivious of the students and teacher still staring at her. "No leave Shampoo!"

But Ranma ignored her, landing on the ground lightly before leaping into a nearby tree, then onto a roof in order to escape in a more familiar method.

'He' felt a hand suddenly grip 'his' shirt, and looked down, surprised to see Akane's face filled with what looked like a combination of stunned awe and fear as she looked at the ground below as he lept between buildings. It made his chest feel tight with some emotion he couldn't- or didn't want to- identify.

-Rain/Akane-

She felt the wind rushing through her hair and her clothes, and gripped her companions' shirt tighter. First that purple-haired girl, and now Ranma. Was she dreaming? She had and was suddenly witnessing not just one, but two superhuman feats, all in one day. _In less than ten minutes_.

She glanced up at Ranma, whose grip on her tightened a bit, as if reassuring her that she wouldn't fall. The redhead's face was looking straight ahead, her legs continuing to scale the tops of buildings as they made their way further from school as if it was nothing. Finally, they stopped on what Rain recognized, after a scan of the area, was Mrs. Smithy's rooftop.

-Ranma-

'He' set her down gently, careful to make sure that her feet were steady on the roof before stepping back to give her her space. This was it, Ranma knew. It had happened faster than he expected, but there was no going back now. She had seen what Shampoo could so, and after that performance, even Akane couldn't think that the Amazon hadn't meant to hurt her. With the appearance of the first unwanted visitor, Ranma knew that, in this moment, he would find out once and for all just how much Akane's amnesia had changed her, and whether she'd be able to handle what was surely going to come next. If she couldn't handle it, he may still have time to back out and take Shampoo off Akane's trail. It would be tough, but if Akane really couldn't deal with it, he'd have no choice but to run and try to get help from someone else. Kami, he was really hoping he wouldn't have to do that and leave Akane on her own.

"Ranma...?"

Akane's voice, questioning and tentatively quiet, snapped 'him' out of his thoughts.

"Yes, Akane?"

She paused at the sound of that name, before continuing. She still wasn't completely used to it, he knew, but he just couldn't bear to call her "Rain" like Mrs. Smithy did. To him, it'd mean that he'd given up on bringing her memories back. And he was too stubborn to do something like that.

"Who... was that girl?"

'He' sighed, scratching the back of his head, trying to figure out how to explain it all to her without, if she was anything like the Akane he knew (and he was still hoping), getting her angry at him.

"Y'see, it all started when I was a kid an' my pops took me on a training trip..."

-Rain/Akane-

She listened to Ranma's story, surprised at first when she started it off by describing her life as a kid. But as the story progressed, it all began to fall into place. At least, some of it.

"He really wanted me to be the strongest, an' at such a young age, who was I to say no? We traveled all over, for years, studying different arts, before we reached this training ground in China."

Ranma paused here, looking a bit bashful at the memory.

"That's where I got this curse, at a training ground called Jusenkyo. Pops couldn't read Chinese, and then..."

Ranma waved at her body, a short laugh coming out of her mouth that sounded almost sarcastic at the memory.

"But anyway, we traveled through China and came across a village of Amazons. They were holding a tournament, and one thing led to another..."

The redhead shrugged, and Rain had the impression that the girl was leaving out something.

"I ended up beating Shampoo, and she followed me to Japan. She lives there now with this old ha-, I mean, her great-grandmother and another Amazon called Mousse. She's really pushy an' though she's nice to me"

Ranma looked at her then, meeting Akane's eyes with her own serious blue ones

"she's really dangerous to almost everyone else."

-Ranma-

'He' waited for her to process the information, prepared to give her time. That is, as long as no one else showed up to interrupt. So far, since Shampoo was the only one who had appeared, their chances were actually pretty good. For a while, anyway.

The first words out of her mouth surprised him.

"An Amazon? But... I thought those were just legend."

Taken back, Ranma just stared at her. _Really_? Of all that he told her, _that_ was what she said first? Akane looked at him, oblivious, and Ranma sighed.

"No, they're real. And really strong."

"I noticed..."

He could tell she was thinking back to what had happened in the classroom.

"Um.. Ranma?"

"Yeah?"

She looked embarrassed.

"Can you... I mean, you carried me all the way... Can you... do that too?"

"Do what? What Shampoo did?"

"Y-yeah."

Rama scratched 'his' head, unsure of why Akane was embarrassed.

"Yeah, I can do that too. You could too, before you lost yer memory. You were a martial artist just like us."

-Rain/Akane-

She was just like them? Rain shook her head. It was impossible.

"Well, maybe not exactly like us." Ranma laughed, oblivious to her disbelief.

"You were clumsy and couldn't beat me with both my hands tied behind my back."

Rain felt anger surge unnaturally quick at the words, and her fists clenched automatically at her sides, unconsciously.

"But..." Ranma continued, interrupting her heated thoughts before they became overwhelming.

"You were strong." she almost whispered.

"Stronger than any normal girl."

Then she turned to face her, a smile on her face that was a bit sad and reminiscing.

"You used to always knock me around when you got mad. Most of the time, I went through the ceiling."

For some strange reason, Rain felt her heart beat a bit faster in her chest at the redhead's expression.

"We used to have lots of fun together, Akane. There were always some rough times, but... I... "

She was looking at her with an almost helpless expression.

"Akane, I..."

Rain found herself straining to hear the redhead, her heart beating unnaturally fast, and anticipation tightening her body, although she didn't know why. But suddenly, a voice broke through Ranma's stammering.

"**Ranma Saotome, prepare to die**!"

Ranma looked up at the sky and the fast approaching shadow and then, faster than Rain could blink, the girl had grabbed her and jumped out of harms way just as a large dent was put in Mrs. Smithy's roof- right where she and Ranma had just stood.

Ranma looked at their attacker, her face angry, and Rain had the distinct feeling that the redhead was more upset with the interruption than the actual attack, even though she couldn't think of why she thought that.

"**Shit!** What are you doing here?"

Ranma glanced down at the dent in the roof, many of the shingles now smashed.

"And look at what you did to the roof! Now what am I supposed to tell Mrs. Smithy?"

For the first time since the attack, Rain chanced a look at their attacker, and was surprised to see a boy about her and Ranma's age, looking almost normal except that he had his bangs tied back with a bandana, a backpack that looked too heavy to be able to move freely while wearing (although he seemed to be carrying it without any struggle), and unusually long eyeteeth, which she noticed when he yelled at Ranma again.

"I heard that you ran off on a training trip by yourself! Finally, I have the opportunity to defeat you one-on-one!" the dark-haired bandana boy shouted, glaring at the redhead who still held her in her arms.

"We always fight one-on-one, stupid! Except for when you cheat and team up on me with Mousse!"

"I never cheat! I am an honorable man!"

"Oh really, Pig-boy? Tell me that one again!"

Rain felt as if she was watching two children arguing. It seemed as if, like the purple-haired girl, this person also had some sort of history with Ranma. But she couldn't tell if they were friends or not. Ranma seemed less panicked about facing the bandana-wearing boy. She also noticed that despite their arguing escalating, the whole time Ranma held her, Rain didn't feel the girl grip her any tighter out of her growing anger, as if she was being careful not to hurt her.

Finally, Ranma seemed to have enough of yelling at their attacker.

"Enough. I can't deal with this anymore. C'mon, Akane. We gotta get you inside so I can fix the roof." the redhead grumbled.

"A-Akane." the bandanna-wearing boy stuttered out, looking at her as if realizing for the first time that she was there. All of a sudden, his pose seemed to get stiffer and his face got a bit red.

"Wh-what are you doing here?"

As if something struck him, his head suddenly jolted up from its bashful downward look and he glared at Ranma.

"Ranma, what were you planning to do to Akane while you were all alone?"

Rain looked up just in time to see the girl's face get red in what looked like embarrassment.

"I wasn't planning nuthin'! Ya pervert!"

"You're the pervert, Saotome! Dressing up in a girl's school uniform during the day! And outside too!"

"I don't have a choice!" Ranma shouted back, her face getting redder."It's an all-girl's school!"

Before the bandanna-boy could retort, and while Rain was utterly confused by their conversation, another voice interrupted him. This time, though, it was a new girl's voice.

"Ranma!"

The redhead looked up as another shadow appeared in the sky, fast approaching, and she moved, with Rain still in her arms, just in time to dodge some sort of weapons that, upon closer inspection, Rain saw were actually... spatulas?

"Shit! Not you _too_!" Ranma cursed again, her face rapidly appearing more panicked and stressed in Rain's eyes as she looked at the newest attacker.

A girl who also appeared about their age landed lightly on the roof, several feet from the bandanna-boy. A large spatula was strapped to her back, and she wore what looked like an okinomiyaki chef's uniform, with her hair tied back in a low ponytail.

"What's this I see? I turn my back for one minute, and hear you go off on a training trip, But when I follow you to join you, what do I find but Akane in your arms!" the girl accused, pulling out more smaller spatulas from a belt wrapped like a sash around her torso.

"What Spatula-girl doing here?" a high-pitched girl's voice asked, as the purple-haired Amazon appeared once again. She lept onto the roof, landing lightly several feet from the girl who held said spatulas. The spatula-wielding girl scowled at the Amazon.

"My name's Ukyo, sugar! You should know that by now. Or are you too stupid to remember?"

The Amazon flipped her hair over her back.

"Shampoo no care what Spatula-girl's name is. Is no matter to Shampoo. You just normal girl. No can compete with Amazon woman."

"Oh really?" the spatula-wielding girl growled at her, raising her hand full of spatulas.

"You wanna bet, you hussy?"  
Rain watched the turn of events unfurl with surprising speed, each second, word, and action adding to her already confused state. She couldn't follow what was going on anymore.

"_Stop it, all of you!"_

Ranma's voice had the two girl's freezing mid-step towards each other, and in an instant had the attention of all three of their attackers. Meanwhile, Rain felt like her head was spinning. All these people seemed to know Ranma personally, and it seemed like they knew her too. But she didn't recognize them. She-

a brief pain shot through her temples as images came into her head, more than she had ever had yet, and more than she could stop or sort out

_"Ranma Saotome, prepare to die!"_

_"Ranma-honey, try some of my delicious okinomiyaki!"_

_"When are you going to marry my Shampoo, Son-in-law?"_

_"H-here, Akane, I b-brought you back some treats from my trip to Hokkaido."_

_"Don't interfere, sugar!"_

_"Airen marry Shampoo!"_

_"Ranma!"_

_"Ranma!"_

_"Ranma!"_

_"Akane!"_

The images all blurred together, although the voices in her head were crystal-clear. Almost overwhelmed, Rain saw black spots enter her vision. She didn't even notice that she had gripped Ranma until the redhead stopped mid-sentence for whatever she had been saying to the three to cast her a worried downward look.

"Akane? What..."

Suddenly, Rain's vision went dark and she felt her conscious slipping as her body grew warmer then burning hot. The last thing she heard before blacking out was Ranma's voice calling to her.

"Akane!"

-Ranma-

'He' sat beside Akane, in her room. Although it was Ryoga, Shampoo and Ukyo that they were talking about, it _was_ Ryoga, Shampoo and Ukyo that they were talking about. So until he knew Akane was awake and safe, he wasn't going to risk leaving her to get hot water to transform back. Being a guy could wait a little longer. Besides, it wasn't as if everyone involved didn't already know his secret. One less complication to worry about.

Still, getting back on track, he still couldn't believe that Akane had fainted. She never fainted. Not that he had ever known of, anyway.

'He' felt her forehead, then sighed in relief. Her temperature had gone down. If her fainting hadn't been enough of a shock for him, her body had suddenly warmed up as well. But she seemed alright now.

"Mmmm..."

Akane stirred in her sleep, raising an arm to shield her eyes from the light coming in from the window.

"Ran...ma...?"

"Hey, Akane." Ranma replied softly, feeling 'him'self smile in relief that she seemed to be okay. "How are you doin'?"

Akane shifted again, slowly lowering her eyes as they adjusted.

"I'm fine... I-"

Their eyes connected, and Ranma both saw and felt her pause. For a second, he could almost swear that she recognized-

Suddenly, Akane sat up like she had been poked with a pin.

"Th-the others! What happened to them? I-"

"Akane, relax." Ranma leaned over and put a hand on her arm.

"Everything's under control." Well, not really, but he wasn't about to tell her that. Not yet. If anything, the situation got worse with every passing minute.

"Take a deep breath. You fainted back there. You need to calm down."

He saw her take a few deep breaths, still looking forward, and watched as her eyes closed, breath slowly evening out nice and slow. Slowly, she opened her eyes again.

"Better." Ranma assured her. "Good. Can you tell me what happened back there? You never used to faint."

"I-I don't know what happened to me." she replied, turning to look at 'him'. Ranma was disappointed that the look in her eyes had vanished, but this talk was too serious for him to dwell on that possible-almost breakthrough now.

"One minute, I was... there, and the next... I... I... "

Seeing that she wasn't ready to talk about it, Ranma backed off, redirecting her attention to something else. They could always figure it out later. He didn't want to push her too hard.

"Come on." he said, hoping to redirect her attention. 'He' stood up, offering her his hand.

"Everyone's waiting for us downstairs."

Not that he was looking forward to what would probably happen after. But it was better to get this over with now, before the situation became worse.

However, as everything else in Ranma's life, nothing ever got better until after it got much much worse.

-end chapter.

end chapter notations: I'm sorry that I seem to be cutting this chapter off at a monumental point, but I just realized how long it was getting, so I figured instead of making you struggle to finish a long fanfiction, I'd give you guys a break and break it down into parts. Sorry for the slight cliffhanger. I promise to try to update again soon!


	10. Disruption and Deceit

Memory of Rain and Lightening Chapter Ten- nihogoneko- rated T (just in case)

Akane fanfic- I'll Remember; Lost Memory and Lightening (I call it an Akane fanfic because it revolves around Akane Tendo, mainly.)

Summary: A girl wakes up in a forest clearing, with no idea who she is. She walks to the nearest town, and no one recognizes her. But she stays there and starts to build a life there as she searches for herself. Now a boy has appeared, claiming to know her.

Disclaimer: I do not own Akane, Ranma, or any of the other Rumiko Takahashi characters from Ranma 1/2, nor do I own the storyline. Sadly, I'm just not that good.

to my readers: I'm sorry that it took so long to update this story. I had made myself promise that I wouldn't update my stories unless I had a chapter ready for each of my 6 current stories so that I'm not updating one story faster than the other, but that meant that I had this chapter ready a while ago and couldn't post it. :( Sorry, but that's the only way I can ensure that I'm fair to all my readers at the same time.

Main Character List: Rain (Akane, who has lost her memory), Mrs. Smithy (the old woman who has given Akane a place to stay), Ranma (Akane's fiancé who has come looking for her), Shampoo, Ukyo and Ryoga (three mysterious people who seem to know Ranma)

Now, on with the story...

-11-

Chapter Eleven- Disruption and Deceit

previously in chapters...

_"I-I don't know what happened to me." she replied, turning to look at 'him'. Ranma was disappointed that the look in her eyes had vanished, but this talk was too serious for him to dwell on that possible-almost breakthrough now. _

_"One minute, I was... there, and the next... I... I... "_

_Seeing that she wasn't ready to talk about it, Ranma backed off, redirecting her attention to something else. They could always figure it out later. He didn't want to push her too hard. _

_"Come on." he said, hoping to redirect her attention. 'He' stood up, offering her his hand. _

_"Everyone's waiting for us downstairs."_

_Not that he was looking forward to what would probably happen after. But it was better to get this over with now, before the situation became worse. _

_However, as everything else in Ranma's life, nothing ever got better until after it got much much worse._

now continuing with the story...

As Rain walked into the other room with Ranma at her side, she felt a mixture of relief and sadness. The fact that she had fainted wasn't some little problem, especially when, to the best of her knowledge, she knew that she was a healthy girl. And the fact that Ranma let her off the hook about trying to explain something that she didn't know how to was very nice of the girl. But... at the same time, she felt like the redhead was hiding something from her. And that somehow, she had... disappointed her.

They had barely turned the corner into the other room when the redhead beside her was tackled, or maybe the more precise term would be 'hugged', by the purple-haired girl. But Rain couldn't be sure of what it really was because to her it kind of looked like Ranma was being strangled. And yet, at the same time, as she watched she felt a strange burning sensation in her gut, fueled by a somehow very familiar fire-like heat in her chest.

"Shampoo so so happy to see Arien again! You no go off on own without Shampoo again!" the girl said in a high-pitched voice.

As she stood there, watching, the heat began traveling down from her chest to her arms until her fists felt hot too. And she had the strangest urge to hit Ranma, although from the way that the girl was struggling, she obviously didn't want the 'hug' the other girl was giving her.

But before she could make up her mind what to do, the purple-haired girl turned her head to glare at her, releasing Ranma in the process. Rain was taken aback by the hatred that she saw in the girl's eyes. And what's more, as the girl stood there, Rain could almost swear that the air around her began to change color, looking like she was giving off some form of heat.

"Kitchen-wrecker take Ranma away Shampoo, yes? No is forgive!"

She cracked her knuckles threateningly, surprising Rain even more. This girl meant to fight her? Over what?

"Now hold on, sugar." the brown-haired girl who had wielded spatulas on the roof spoke up. It was then that Rain realized that it wasn't just her, Ranma, and the girl who called herself Shampoo in the house- the spatula girl and the banana-wearing boy were also there.

"You can't just beat her up like that."

Rain was relieved that at least one of the strangers was on her side

"I have just as much right as you do. Ranma-honey shouldn't have gone anywhere without me."

... or not.

What was with those two? They seemed to be very attached to Ranma, and... jealous that they had found the redhead with her. Apparently, they all knew each other, considering the familiar way with which they spoke about Ranma, and each other. She glanced at the boy with the bandanna, who looked unaffected, as if this kind of thing happened often. But when their eyes connected, he blushed and quickly looked away.

Confused by his reaction, Rain didn't realize that she hadn't been listening to what the purple-haired girl had said until said girl took another step towards her.

-Ranma-

He watched Akane turn her attention back to the Amazon as she advanced. He didn't want to step in unless Shampoo raised a hand or weapon to attack, hoping that her and Ukyo's words may trigger some memory of them all in Akane's head. Because the three had fought so often with each other, he, in a strange way, was relying on that pattern and habit to make Akane fall back into old habits and jog her memory, like it had the time Shampoo had used that herbal shampoo on Akane a long time ago.

"You no take Ranma from Shampoo! Ranma Shampoo's!" Shampoo was saying to the short-haired girl.

"But..." Akane hesitated, looking confused and glancing at 'him' as she said her next sentence.

"Ranma's a girl."

Ranma felt himself start at the declaration. Yeah, it was technically true right now because of his curse (which he knew he had explained to her before now), but... what was she getting at?

Shampoo frowned at her, some of the fight seeming to go out of her at the out-of-place declaration, and he watched Akane read the confusion on the girl's face.

"Ranma no is girl. Ranma boy. No play stupid. No is funny."

Akane looked over at Ranma again, this time as if asking the red-head to confirm what Shampoo had said. And that was all it took.

Ranma stared at Akane, stunned, as pieces of the strange things she had been doing began to fall into place in a way he could comprehend.

_That's why she didn't get angry about the kiss?_

He stared at her in disbelief, unable to speak past the shock that had numbed his brain.

_Akane had thought that he was a girl. A _real_ girl. _

He wasn't sure whether to laugh or..._  
_

-Ukyo-

It was later on that day that she managed to get the whole story out of her fiancé. Apparently, Akane had disappeared from the hot springs inn that she and her friends had been staying at, and Ranma had tracked her down when he heard about it because he had been worried._  
_

That had hurt Ukyo to hear, but Ranma told her how no one else knew that Akane had gone missing, and that no one knew that he had gone looking for her- how everyone else thought that he was on a training trip. Ukyo felt another pain in her chest then too, because she had believed that too.

Ranma didn't know when Akane's memory would return, or how it had happened, but he was determined to stay with her until she was cured and remembered everything.

'All I really know is that she calls herself Rain now.' he had told her

'And, apparently' he gave a wry look as he said this

'she thought that I was a girl, after finding out about my curse, although I only just realized that now. Somehow, despite losing her memory, she managed to be just as dense as usual and jump to the wrong conclusion.'

After their talk, Ukyo had decided on her course of action. Despite what she knew in her heart of hearts that Ranma was hoping for, she would not help Akane regain her memory. Instead, this was the perfect opportunity for her to destroy their relationship as an engaged couple. That Amazon hussy was probably too dumb to do something like this right away, and if she got a head start, the ball would be in her court. With any luck, Ranma would give up on Akane soon after, and they could return home and get married! Just thinking about it gave her goosebumps of delight.

-later-

She managed to get Akane alone later that same day. By then, it had gotten dark, but considering that the setting was appropriate for what she was about to do, Ukyo didn't mind.

She spent several minutes assuring Akane that yes, Ranma was a guy (although honestly, if her plan didn't require the girl to know, she'd have preferred her to continue to think of him as a girl so she wouldn't try to make any moves on him). She described the Jusenkyo curse in detail, leaving out any mention of Akane herself as she continued on to tell the girl how she and Ranma had met up again after being apart for so long (also leaving out how Ranma's father had stolen her father's cart) and interacted in Nerima. She went on to say how close she and Ranma were to each other, being childhood friends and all. And judging from the girl's expression, she was believing everything that she said.

So far, so good.

-Rain/Akane-

She listened to Ukyo talk about Ranma. Despite the fact that initially, the girl had acted very aggressive towards her, when she had approached her a few minutes ago she had apologized about her behavior immediately, explaining that she had just been really worried when Ranma had disappeared because he hadn't told anyone where he was going.

As the girl had continued to talk about Ranma, Rain had begun to think back to how she had first met him, and about the feelings that had gone away deep into her heart when she found out about Ranma's curse. She had assumed that that he had been talking about being turned into a guy, and the fact that he was just as comfortable in his female body as his male body- if not more so at times, had only made her more convinced the longer she had spent with him. Although he had always seemed eager to turn back into a guy when he could.

Why she hadn't taken such an obvious thing into account, Rain couldn't be sure. Her only excuse was that she had been too concerned with trying to see if she could remember Ranma before her amnesia or not to notice too much about his habits and mannerisms. Ranma had always been nice to her- patient even, which she had somehow stereotyped as a female characteristic.

She wasn't sure why, but she felt that she had a lot of negative stereotypes about guys in general. Perhaps it was because she was at the moment going to an all-girls school, and hadn't really interacted with any males, except Ranma and maybe Mr. Tsuruga, since she had woken in that forest. But maybe, there was a deeper reason behind it all...

A voice cut through her thoughts.

"Ak- I mean, ah... Rain, were you listening to me?"

Rain realized that she had allowed her mind to wander, inadvertently tuning out of what Ukyo had been saying.

"So, Ranma actually _is_ a guy?" she asked, her mind still going through memories of her time with Ranma that she could recall.

"Yes, sugar. He is. Why would you think otherwise?" Ukyo asked, her chin in her hand, with her elbow rested on her knee for support. The girl didn't look upset to have been ignored. In fact, there was a strange anticipation on her face, and she was smiling as if she had a secret joke that she was thinking of.

Rain wanted to ask her about it, but aside from the fact that she didn't really know anything about the girl (despite Ranma's assurance that she had known all of the new strangers before her amnesia), she had a thought in the back of her head that it wasn't anything she'd like.

-Ukyo-

She studied Akane as she apparently took this information in for the second time that day, watching the girl's face closely to see if what Ranma had said was true. And what she saw convinced her. Akane seemed to really have been surprised by the news, and more so, she wasn't getting angry about it.

Weird_._ Akane always got angry when Ranma didn't tell her something.

_This amnesia of hers must be more serious than I thought._

Ukyo thought that it was time to deliver the final blow.

"I know it's a lot to take in, after spending all this time thinking that he was a she, but I had to make sure that you understood. After all, I'm pretty sure that same-sex marriages are illegal in Japan."

"Huh?"

"Well, Ranma and I are engaged, after all."

She smiled at the mix of emotions on the girl's face- shock, confusion, disbelief, and... just a hint of sadness.

"Oh... That's... nice." the girl's voice trailed off at the end, her words soft.

"Don't be surprised, sugar. Ranma doesn't like to talk about things like that much because he's too embarrassed, but we're very much in love. That girl in there- Shampoo? She appeared one day and tried to take him away from me. But I wouldn't let something like that happen, and she still hasn't one against me once. Ranma's mine, and I'll gladly fight for him against anyone."

She made sure that her threat, although hidden, was there for Akane to at least subconsciously understand. The less the girl fought with her about it, the better off she'd be. After all, Ukyo didn't care that Akane had lost her memory. It was still Akane. And if she tried to get between her and Ranma, she'd deal with her accordingly.

Besides, who knew when Akane's memory would return? If she made sure that she didn't approach Ranma as "Rain", Akane would probably be too embarrassed about being tricked by her to approach Ranma later on, if and when she got her memory back.

Ukyo sighed happily, enjoying her lie and looking forward to the outcome it would present to her in the end.

"We're so much in love."

She watched Akane's face carefully- was that a slight wince? But no, it couldn't be. Akane had no memories of Ranma prior to a few days ago. She couldn't have any of those sort of feelings for him again already.

"Sometimes it all seems like a dream."

Ukyo fell silent to stare up at the stars. The sky was clear, and she had a good view of what little moon there was, although it was too weak to shine enough light to reach them on Earth. It felt almost unnaturally warm outside, considering that it was night and that there was a slight breeze. She could almost swear that it was warmer than it initially was when they first stepped out.

"Well, I should get going to bed." she said finally, standing up and brushing off the seat of her uniform. It was time for the final nail in the coffin.

"You'll support my and Ranma's love, right, Rain?"

She held out her hand for the girl to shake, and watched her hesitate a second before placing her hand on Ukyo's outstretched one. The strange tingle she received from the contact, like when your arm falls asleep, almost made her miss Akane's quiet

"Yeah."

Unable to help herself, a large grin appeared on her face.

"That's great. Well then, sleep well, Ak- ah, Rain."

And with a final wave, she went indoors.

-Rain/Akane-

She barely heard Ukyo leave. It seemed too much an effort to stop staring at the ground, as if her eyes couldn't move. They hurt slightly, and she felt them become slightly watery from the minor pain.

Her throat burned as if something was painfully stuck in it, and her hands, no, her whole body, was very warm- warmer than it should be considering the cool outside weather.

The longer she stayed like that, the more aware she was of a growing pain in her chest. Rain almost absentmindedly rubbed the spot as she was finally able to bring her gaze off the ground and to the stars, which were beginning to be covered by what looked like storm clouds.

"Ow..." she muttered to herself, still rubbing the spot, just before a peal of thunder could be heard almost overhead and the heavens opened, pouring rain.

-end chapter.


	11. The Frustration of Akane

Memory of Rain and Lightening Chapter Ten- nihogoneko- rated T (just in case)

Akane fanfic- I'll Remember; Lost Memory and Lightening (I call it an Akane fanfic because it revolves around Akane Tendo, mainly.)

Summary: A girl wakes up in a forest clearing, with no idea who she is. She walks to the nearest town, and no one recognizes her. But she stays there and starts to build a life there as she searches for herself. Now a boy has appeared, claiming to know her.

Disclaimer: I do not own Akane, Ranma, or any of the other Rumiko Takahashi characters from Ranma 1/2, nor do I own the storyline. Sadly, I'm just not that good.

to my readers: I'm sorry it took so long. But here is a nice long chapter, and I hope you enjoy. m(_ _)m

Main Character List: Rain (Akane, who has lost her memory), Mrs. Smithy (the old woman who has given Akane a place to stay), Ranma (Akane's fiancé who has come looking for her), Shampoo, Ukyo and Ryoga (three mysterious people who seem to know Ranma)

Now, on with the story...

-12-

Chapter Twelve- The Frustration of Akane

previously in chapters...

_She barely heard Ukyo leave. It seemed too much an effort to stop staring at the ground, as if her eyes couldn't move. They hurt slightly, and she felt them become a bit watery from the minor pain. Her throat burned as if something was painfully stuck in it, and her hands, no, her whole body, was very warm- warmer than it should be considering the cool outside weather. _

_The longer she stayed like that, the more aware she was of a growing pain in her chest. Rain almost absentmindedly rubbed the spot as she was finally able to bring her gaze off the ground and to the stars, which were beginning to be covered by what looked like storm clouds. _

_"Ow..." she muttered to herself, still rubbing the spot, just before a peal of thunder could be heard almost overhead and the heavens opened, pouring rain. _

now continuing with the story...

Rain was slowly aware of water falling down her cheeks. She had quickly gotten drenched, having stayed outside as the rain poured down, but it was the difference in temperature that had made her aware of these drops. She touched her cheeks, where the warmth trailed. It was almost as if... as if she was crying.

Rain tried to laugh to herself about such an absurd thing, only to find her throat had gotten tighter at the thought and she instead ending up feeling a bit like she was choking, as more warm drops slid down her cheeks. She bowed her head in order to try to breathe better, no longer able to see as the warm rain was also in her eyes.

Then it occured to her. She _was_ crying.

She began to hiccup as she sobbed, unable to stop the tears from flowing, although unsure why. It couldn't be because of what Ukyo said, because she didn't know Ranma that well to cry about him like this. But for some reason, she felt frustrated from the conversation, as if something about it was bothering her, but she couldn't figure out what it was. Not with her memory in shambles like this.

Rain stared at her hands, which were covered in water like the rest of her as the rain continued to fall down, and as a streak of lightening flew across the sky, she could have sworn that her hands looked like they themselves contained electricity, although it was just for a second.

Dismissing it as the reflection of the lightening on the water on her hands, Rain realized that her tears were slowly stopping, as if she had released her pent up emotion of fustration. She felt a little better now, flexing the hand that she stared at as if to reassure herself of the fact. She took one deep breath, then another.

A sudden crash sounded from inside the house, and Rain, confused and a bit worried, stood up and went inside to investigate.

What she found inside was a very strange sight.

Ranma was running circles around the room, a pink and white cat latched onto her shoulders, meowing excessively and purring. Ranma, for some reason, was flailing her arms and screaming

"Get off!"

as fast as her mouth would allow. There was also a black piglett in the room, squealing, it seemed, at Ranma, and Ukyo was laughing on the sidelines.

Upon spotting her, the black piglet ran up to her, making a different set of noises that she could only call happy squeals, but Rain couldn't take her eyes off Ranma. The redhead looked... terrified.

Almost without thought, Rain walked up to her and snatched the cat off by the scruff of its neck, freeing her friend from the pink and white fur ball as it hissed and tried to swipe at her with its claws, but she refused to be cowed by a small animal, and kept her grip tight. Growling, the cat, who was unable to reach her, gave up.

"What's going on here?" she asked. Ranma seemed too out of breath to answer, having stopped running to stand a safe distance from her to, she presumed, put some distance between her and the cat.

"Here, sugar." Ukyo said, after her laughter had calmed down. She pulled a kettle of hot water out from somewhere.

"I think that there were a few things that we forgot to mention to you earlier today."

Then she proceeded to pour water from the kettle onto the cat in her hands.

"Wait- what are y-" Rain began, but suddenly felt the feline get heavier in her hand, and not even a second later, her hand was empty and on the floor in front of her was a wet- and naked- Shampoo, who definitely hadn't been there before.

-Ranma-

If he wasn't so terrified, he would have laughed. As Shampoo was transformed back into a human, abet a very wet and naked one, he felt some of his fear subside, to be replaced by the uncomfortablenes of being in the same room as a naked girl, despite the fact that it was Shampoo and she flaunted herself in front of him whenever she got the chance- clothes on or no, and despite the fact that right now he was a she and routinely ran around with next to nothing on himself.

Akane's expression of surprise was priceless. Unlike the reaction she had towards his Jusenkyo curse, Shampoo's was obviously on a whole different level for her to experience firsthand. After all, he just turned into a girl. Shampoo transformed into another species entirely. And speaking of which...

Ranma glanced at Ryoga, who, in piglet form, had fainted from a bloody nose. Shampoo had transformed right in front of him, in all her naked glory. Well, at least he had one less thing to worry about for the second.

"So... you also have a Jusenkyo curse?"

He was proud of her for being able to piece it together herself, considering that it must've been a lot to take in and accept after just finding out about him being a guy. It was like time was conspiring against her by throwing everything at her at once.

Shampoo, however, wasn't impressed. When Akane reached down to help her up, the Amazon brushed her hand aside and stood up on her own. Completely comfortable with her nudity, she stared Akane down, or at least, tried to, hands on her hips.

"This no bother Shampoo, because Shampoo is Amazon woman. Is strong. Not weak like Kitchen-wrecker who can no even remember Arien is guy."

The Amazon pointed at Akane's face.

"You have no right to treat Shampoo like ordinary cat! Is get in way of true love! Shampoo sure Ranma cure cat hate on own and then we go back China!"

"Cat... hate..?"

Akane looked over at him, confusion on her face again. This was starting to become a habit.

Although Ranma wasn't necessarily willing to explain this one to her.

"You didn't know about that either, Aka-ah, Rain?" Ukyo spoke up, a small smile on her face as she looked at Akane. For some reason, it made Ranma suspicious, as if she was up to something. But he mentally shook his head. It was just Ukyo. She wouldn't plan anything devious, right?

"Ranma's been afraid of cats ever since his dad tried to make him learn some weird technique when he was a kid."

"O- oh..."

Akane looked from Shampoo back to him, as if she was trying to figure something out, although he had no idea what.

"I... see."

A water drop landed on his nose, and remembering the cause of the recent chaos, 'he' looked up. Yup. Still leaking.

"Sorry to interrupt, but Shampoo, why don't you go in another room while I get this fixed."

The Amazon looked at him, seeming ready to say something, but then she saw where he was staring and, after seeing the water still leaking from the roof, gave an abrupt "Hmph." and walked into the next room, still uncaring for her nudity.

"An' bring yer clothes with ya!", 'he' added, a bit too late.

"Shampoo no care about clothes!" came the reply.

Sighing, Ranma leaned down and picked up the Amazon's colorful garments, handed them to Ukyo, and with a

"Ukyo, would you mind?" and an answering

"Not at all."

Ukyo took Shampoo's clothes from 'his' outstretched hands, gave a last smile to Akane, and another of the recent occupants left the room.

All that was left was Ryoga, but seeing as he was still passed out on the floor, Ranma decided to deal with him later.

"When it began raining, water came in from the roof and triggered our Jusenkyo curses." 'he' explained to Akane as he began rolling up 'his' sleeves.

"It was probably because that idiot Ryoga smashed the roof tiles earlier and there was a crack."

"Speaking of which," Akane followed him into the kitchen to the closet to get some buckets to contain the dripping water, "Ryoga's the guy with the banana, right? Where did he go off to? I didn't see him when I came in."

Ranma hesitated at the question. Now would be the perfect time to expose Ryoga's curse, since Akane didn't know about P-chan and Ryoga was knocked out on the living room floor, but it just didn't seem fair. And besides, he _had_ promised Ryoga that he wouldn't tell her. Even though he'd regretted it every day since.

"Er, that guy's got a thing against cold water. He escaped into another room."

"Oh, will he be alright? Is he afraid of it the way you're afraid of cats?"

He couldn't help a slight shiver from the sound of the c-word, but he managed a head shake.

"No, nothin' like that. He'll come out eventually. He just doesn't... like it very much."

"Oh. Okay."

Because Akane had obviously not noticed Ryoga's pig form, when he got back into the living room with the bucket, Ranma (who had sent Akane to another room to get a mop) grabbed the still unconscious 'P-chan' and tossed him in the closet of the room Mrs. Smithy was letting him stay in. Even if Ryoga woke up, with his bad sense of direction, he'd probably get lost in there for a while, which was fine with him.

"Hello? Is anyone in?"

At the sound of a familiar (and for once today, welcome) voice, Ranma walked back into the main room to greet her.

"Mrs. Smithy, welcome back."

"Hello, Ranma. I seem to have gotten caught in the sudden rain on my way back from shopping. I'm sorry if the bread's a bit soggy. The plastic should have protected it, though."

"That's okay. You're not the only one to get wet. The roof is leaking."

"Oh dear. How did that happen?"

"Er..."

"Oh, Mrs. Smithy. You're back."

Rain came into the room carrying the mop.

"I see you got caught in the rain too."

Ranma, who had been in the midst of placing the bucket on the floor under the leak, looked up upon hearing what she said. It was then that 'he' noticed that Akane was, in fact, wet.

If he remembered correctly, she had been outside before the whole ceiling-leak thing. He didn't remember too much between the time that she went outside and when she pulled Shampoo off him, but still, something was nagging him at the back of 'his' mind. Something about her being outside in the rain that he felt was important.

Typically, you heard the thunder and saw some lightening before it rained for a storm as bad as it was now. So she should have had plenty of warning to come inside before it began. If he remembered correctly, Ukyo had been out there with her too, but she had definitely already been inside when the roof began leaking. Then why had Akane...

"I see, so we have guests."

Mrs. Smithy's voice cut through 'his' musings as Ranma was abruptly brought back to the present. He didn't know why he was thinking so much into it, anyway.

"Well, if they want, they can spend the night here. I would feel bad sending them out in a storm like this so late at night. They're friends of yours, I presume? Are they from school?"

She smiled at Akane, who looked both confused and flustered.

"Um... Well... I did meet one... at... school..."

The girl scratched her cheek lightly with a finger, her gaze straying to the side as she seemed to recall the highly unusual circumstance that she had (re)met Shampoo in and appeared to be struggling with how best to describe it to the older woman.

"But she's not... a... classmate of mine..."

"Oh?"

Ranma, feeling pity for Akane as 'he' watched her struggle to explain something that she was still finding out about, came to her rescue.

"They're sorta friends of mine an' Akane's from... before."

" 'Before'?" the older woman looked at the redhead. "Ah, you mean... yes, that would make sense."

She glanced at the ceiling leak.

"My my, what a state my place is in. Not exactly suitable for receiving guests now, is it?"

She smiled though, not nearly as upset as she had the right to be considering the fact that it was their 'friend's' (mainly Ryoga's) fault that her ceiling was leaking in the first place (not that she knew this, of course, but still, she'd be justified).

"Well, there's no use crying over spilt milk. Rain, would you like to help me make dinner?"

Just then, Shampoo came back into the room (this time, thankfully, full dressed).

"Aiya, Kitchen-Wrecker cook? Is no food Shampoo want eat."

"I have to agree with her on that one, Ak- ah, Rain." Ukyo said, following right behind her. Ranma, found himself pausing at the sound of her stumbling over her words. Why was Ukyo calling her Rain? He understood if Mrs. Smithy did it, since Akane didn't know her name then, but Ukyo?

'He' turned to get her attention so he could pull her to the side and quietly tell her that she shouldn't call Akane 'Rain' because it may deter her from remembering, but the okonomiyaki chef was busy talking to Akane, her back to Ranma.

-Rain/Akane-

"You might want to rethink that plan, Rain. Back in Nerima, you weren't exactly known for your... er, 'good' cooking. I can help cook dinner instead. I am an okinomiyaki _chef_, after all."

For some reason, despite Ukyo's friendly smile, Rain felt something that felt very much like annoyance at the girl's words. Had she really been that bad a cook before her memory loss? Although it was true that she sometimes tended to be a bit clumsy in the kitchen and misread labels, for the most part, when Mrs. Smithy and she cooked together, her food didn't taste that bad.

Besides, if her cooking was really horrible, and Ranma, having known her before her amnesia, knew that, he probably would have never eaten what she'd been cooking (well, helped Mrs. Smithy cook) these past few days. But he had eaten every bite.

Although, now that she thought about it, when Mrs. Smithy first told Ranma that they had cooked dinner together, he had looked a bit hesitant to eat it. She had just thought it was her imagination, but...

"Spatula Girl no cook dinner for Arien." Shampoo's high-pitched voice cut through her thoughts

"Is _wife_ job to cook for husband. Shampoo cook at restaurant with great-grandmother. Shampoo prepare better food than same okinomiyaki."

"Ex-_cuse_ me? Okinomiyaki is highly variable in flavor! You Amazon hussy!"

"Shampoo no believe. Shampoo food is better than Kitchen-Wrecker and Spatula Girl."

"You take that back! You may be a better cook than her, but you're_ not_ better than me!"

As their argument continued, Rain felt a strange burning in her gut.

Did _everyone_ who knew her before her amnesia consider her _completely_ incompetent in the kitchen?

She glanced at Ranma, who had begun mopping the floor under the ceiling leak. He wasn't even trying to stick up for her. She couldn't vouch for her own cooking from that time, but surely she hadn't been _that_ bad.

The rain, which had begun to die down around the time that Mrs. Smithy had arrived, suddenly began pouring again, sounding like a waterfall on the roof, and quickly followed by a bright flash of lightening and a very loud clash of thunder.

"Wah!"

Everyone turned just in time to see Ranma get drenched in more cold water and fall on her butt as the crack in the ceiling expanded from the sudden increase of pressure pounding on the roof. As the water came closer to them, Shampoo took a few delicate steps back so as to not get wet and, presumably, risk turning into a cat again.

"Aiya, roof is no in good shape."

"You can blame Ryoga for that." Ranma grumbled as 'he' pushed the bucket that had been collecting the dripping water (that had moved from the sudden onslaught of water) back under the crack in the ceiling with his foot from his position on the floor.

The redhead tried to blow one of the strands of hair that stuck to 'his' face out of the way with his mouth, but upon failing just sighed and pushed it out of the way with 'his' hand. Rain was still trying to come to terms with the fact that this girl was actually a biologically born boy, but she was still struggling with the idea. Ranma just seemed so... unakward as a girl.

She watched the 'girl' in question push the bangs back from her face with a hand, and despite her feminine features, there seemed to be something more... something different about her expression and the way her face expressed her emotions that, now that Rain paid attention to it, did looked very masculine.

Perhaps Ranma was just used to being in a girl's body, since, according to his story, he had been cursed for more than a year now.

Still, it would take some getting used to. Since she had assumed that Ranma was a girl, she hadn't felt uncomfortable around the pigtailed figure. But now that she knew that the 'she' was in fact a 'he', not just sometimes in body but also in mind, would she begin to feel awkward around him?

"Ugh, I need to change my clothes."

The grumbling voice broke Rain's train of thought. Ranma, the one who had spoken, stood up and squeezed a portion of water out of 'her' shirt, dripping it into the nearby bucket.

"You sure do." Rain commented, noticing that the redhead's whole outfit was dripping water. Ranma glanced her way.

"Speak for yourself, Akane."

'She' grinned at Rain, obviously amused.

"I'm not the only one that's wet."

Rain looked down at herself, only just then remembering that she herself was dripping water. In all the confusion, she had completely forgotten about it.

"Oh."

She looked up again to see Ranma still grinning at her, and suddenly, she felt her face heat up in what seemed suspiciously like a blush.

Ranma noticed this, and their eyes connected for a brief instant. The redhead's eyes glanced at Rain's wet clothes a second time, and this time, 'she' blushed herself and glanced away as if just realizing what she was doing and what she had said.

The tension between the two of them seemed almost tangible. If possible, Rain felt that she was more embarrassed then she was sure Ranma was, because she was the one who had assumed that Ranma was a girl, and it was her actions that reminded him that she was now aware of it. Would this be how it was from now on- awkward conversations with each other while each tried to avoid stepping on a potentially embarrassing or accidentally suggestive word or phrase every minute that they talked?

"Um... yeah. I'm gonna go into my room and... change." Ranma mumbled, 'his' hand on the back of his head.

"Mm... me too." Rain felt herself all but whisper, and she began to follow behind 'him'- at a short distance, leaving the rest of the people in the room behind.

-Ukyo-

"My my," the older woman remarked after Ranma and Akane had left the room. "That was certainly different. I wonder what changed between those two?"

Ukyo, for one, couldn't- and didn't want to- answer, too busy wrapped up in her own thoughts.

What was _that_? She had never seen Ranma and Akane act like that around each other. Akane was the uncute fiancee- Ranma had said so himself. So why had he seemed so... aware of Akane just now? And what was with that strange tension?

There was no way that those two had gotten closer while they had been here. It was impossible. After all, Akane couldn't even remember her real name. She was going by 'Rain' right now. There was no way that their relationship could have developed while she was like that.

Still, she felt an uneasy feeling in her gut.

Maybe she should double her efforts, just in case.

-dinner-

"Thank you."

Ukyo took the bowl of rice that the older woman was serving. Mrs. Smithy, was nice enough to let them all stay until they were ready to leave for home. Which, hopefully, if she got Ranma to give up on Akane like she planned, would be sooner rather than later. For now, though, she had to be sure to use her manners so as to not upset her host.

"I was thinking," the okinomiyaki chef began, "Since you're nice enough to let us stay over for the time being, I don't want to take up too much room. Ranma and I are old childhood friends. I can stay in his room with him until I leave."

She saw Akane pause in the process of taking a bite of food, but it was only brief- too brief to tell whether she was surprised by Ukyo's statement or whether she was just being careful of how hot it was.

"Oh, don't worry yourself, dear." Mrs. Smithy replied with a smile, "We have more than enough space for everyone. There's no need to share rooms. I own this whole building, you know."

"You're a landlord?" Ukyo couldn't help the faint sound of disbelief in her voice. Not because this older woman was a landlord, but because what were the odds that this would happen? She was prepared to argue gently and sensibly to get her way and share a room with Ranma-honey, but this completely blew away any argument that she could have planned. Luck wasn't on her side with this, it seemed.

Well then, she'd just have to try harder.

"Yes, it's surprising, I know. A woman of my age, managing this whole building by myself."

"Oh no, I didn't mean it that way." Ukyo assured her. "It was just a surprise that we'd have such luck. I was worried that we would be troubling you for space if we stayed."

"No, not at all. And if anything seems a bit rusty or broken, just let me know. A friend of mine, Mr. Tsuruga, helps me with repairs."

"Is that the same Mr. Tsuruga that we met a while back?" Rain asked her, curious.

"Oh, right. You met him that day, didn't you? I had forgotten about that." Mrs. Smithy replied, smiling. "Would you like to stop by and see him again sometimes soon?"

"Yes please." Rain smiled back, the idea obviously making her happy.

Ukyo found herself completely lost in the conversation. Thankfully, a glance in Ranma's direction (who had changed back into a guy shortly after he changed clothes) told her that he was on the same boat.

She was curious, though. Who was this Mr. Tsuruga, and why did Akane seem so happy to see him? Could it be possible that she liked this man? And, if so, could Ukyo use him to push Ranma and Akane further apart? It was, of course, possible that he was an _older_ man, considering that he was friends with Mrs. Smithy, in which case a plan like that was probably out of the question. Still, there was no harm in asking.

"You've met Mr. Tsuruga before, Rain?"

"Oh, I'm sorry." the older woman said, turning to her. "I was ignoring all of you. Yes, Rain met Mr. Tsuruga around the time that we first met."

She smiled at Akane, who smiled back.

"My friend Mr. Tsuruga owns a martial arts dojo in town. I ran into Rain when she apprehended a thief who had stolen my purse from me. When I learned that she had amnesia, I decided to let her stay with me and help her find her family. Then Ranma came along, just at the time that we were heading to see Mr. Tsuruga at his dojo."

"Ah." Ranma hit a fist into the palm of his other hand as a look of recognition crossed his face. "I remember that. That was him?"

"Yes."

The older woman smiled at him, but Ukyo felt another uneasy feeling in her gut at his response. So Ranma did know this guy as well? It was the first time in a while that she felt like an outsider, and she didn't like the feeling.

-Ranma-

He felt proud of himself for remembering what the man looked like, except that right on the tail end of that memory was one of Akane and that same man sparring on a bare wood floor. And that's when he remembered the rest. How Akane had sparred with a level three black belt with little to no difficulty, and how she might have shown an upside to her amnesia since it seemed that forgetting actually unlocked her real fighting potential, something that he had at times suspected in the past but had never gotten a firm grasp on if it was real or if it was just his imagination- until that day. He didn't like to think that there was a positive side to Akane forgetting everything, but based on that one moment alone, he could no longer say that the memory loss was all bad. Although...

he looked around the table as he continued on with that thought

Although it would probably be better if the others didn't know about it, lest they decide to try to 'test' her to see how far these latent abilities went. The last thing he wanted was for Akane to get hurt. And despite having been exposed to both Ukyo and Shampoo at the same time and caught between them on the roof in that almost fight, he was still worried about leaving her alone with them (although it was mostly Shampoo). Even now, Akane was far too trusting, and she no longer had the memories of what had happened in the past to remind her of how vicious Shampoo could be or how strong both the Amazon and Ukyo were.

No, it'd be better to keep that to himself for now.

"Hey, Ranma," Ukyo's voice interrupted his train of thought.

"I can't imagine Akane doing too well in one of those places, can you? But what's say you and I go there and have a match some day? Akane can come and watch, if she wants. "

She giggled at the thought, but all the idea brought to mind for Ranma was Akane getting challenged by Ukyo.

"Hey, cut that out." he said, giving her what he hoped was a stern look and making sure to keep his voice low, like she had. He didn't want her getting any ideas about going against Akane. Especially since he didn't want Akane to get hurt when Ukyo went full out.

"That's not funny. She has amnesia. I don't want to drag her into something like that now."

Ukyo looked shocked at his words.

" 'Something like that'? Ranma, this is martial arts! You live for this stuff!" the okinomiyaki chef whispered back in a surprised tone.

"Yeah, but I don't want to take any chances. I don't want Akane to get hurt." he found himself saying, and realized with a start that it was true. _He was choosing Akane over martial arts. _

"No, we can't have that, can we?" her voice was slightly harsh when she said it, which made Ranma wonder if he had somehow stepped on a sore spot, although he couldn't think of why. Ukyo had told him that she was just as concerned about Akane and her current state earlier that day. She wasn't like Shampoo, hating Akane for no reason.

"Yeah." he whispered back, and his voice trailed off as he looked down at his food, which he had barely touched. It was so unlike him. A lot of things lately seemed unlike him, but he found that he didn't regret any of it so far. Well, he regreted leading the others to Akane, but nothing else.

He glanced at Akane, who was talking to Mrs. Smithy. As if she felt his gaze, she turned and their eyes met briefly before he looked away.

He was afraid of her getting hurt. Even if she showed potential as a martial artist in the state she was in now, he was afraid that her naieve persaonality would prevent her from recognizing real danger (aka Shampoo) when it showed itself to her. He didn't want Ukyo to put the idea of sparring into her head, not yet. Akane had wanted to spar with him- fine. He could do that. But he wouldn't let her do the same with anyone else until he was sure she'd be okay.

He glanced over at her again, and again their eyes met. Before he realized what he was doing, he had turned his head away again, for some reason feeling embarrassed. He felt his face heat up slightly, as if he had a fever, and was unsure why. Why did the idea of him wanting to make sure that Akane was okay make him feel embarrassed?

-Ukyo-

Ukyo, meanwhile, had missed the whole exchange. She had been thinking over what Ranma had told her. He was _worried _about Akane? She was fine! What did he have to worry about? The girl was obviously happy as she was. They should just leave her and return home. It was already more serious then she thought. Sure, her Ranma-honey was considerate of others, but... this was far too much. He was putting Akane before martial arts!

She fumed quietly in her seat.

He had never done such a thing for _her_! This weird behavior had to stop! It was making her really worried. Especially about her future with Ranma-honey.

-Shampoo-

Shampoo, had seen exchange between Arien and Kitchen-wrecker while Spatula-girl oblivious and clench teeth in frustration. Is no like how Arien look at Kitchen-wrecker.

Obstacle has must be removed soon. Shampoo promise.

With that, the Amazon took another bite of her food, contemplating.

-next day-

Shampoo still frustrated. No have chance to be sneaky at all. Arien stay by Kitchen-wrecker like glue. It like Arien protecting her. Hah! If Kitchen-wrecker Amazon, she be strong enough to face Shampoo by self, not hide behind male! Is weak! Shampoo wait until she alone. Then she girl who real warrior is!

-Rain/Akane; next day-

Ranma and the other boy, Ryoga (who had reappeared that morning), were sparring outside. In the beginning it had seemed like the fanged-boy was pretty serious, shouting a whole bunch of things at the pig-tailed martial artist, but said boy had just laughed it all off, so it must just been how they played.

Still, she had watched them for quite a while, not listening to the words they were saying but just... watching.

Their bodies moved so smoothly, and with so much power. Had she ever been like that? Ranma had mentioned she had been a martial artist before her amnesia. How good _had_ she been? She really wanted to know.

He had agreed to spar with her, at her request. But would their sparring match be anything like what she was seeing now? Would she be any match for Ranma? Something inside of her really wanted to test that theory out.

"Amazing, aren't they?" Ukyo said, coming up beside her. "Especially Ranma-honey. He's the best."

"Um... yeah. I guess." Rain replied, scratching the back of her head, embarrassed to have been caught staring.

"You guess? Ranma-honey is _amazing_! He's the best martial artist in the world! I would accept nothing else as _my_ fiance." she smiled at Rain, a proud curve of her lips.

"I... see." was all Rain found she could say. For some reason, it seemed like when they talked, Ranma was all Ukyo could converse about. Really, she didn't mind that the two were engaged, but... did she have to keep reminding her? Every... single time? It was almost like... she didn't want Rain to forget.

But that was impossible. She dismissed the notion with a shake of her head.

Ukyo was engaged to Ranma. Meanwhile, she couldn't even remember who Ranma was before their encounter not too long ago. What would Ukyo have to be afraid of? Their relationship was... completely platonic. And she was just being egoistic, thinking that Ukyo would feel worried about _her_ taking Ranma away. It wasn't like she was as pretty as Shampoo.

It took her a second to realize that her vision of the ground, which she hadn't even realized she had been looking at, had gotten a bit blurry around the edges. She blinked in the hopes of clearing her sight before the tears fell. _Not now_. She couldn't cry now.

It was so stupid, such a stupid thing to cry over. In fact, she thought as she tried to pretend to wipe something out of her eyes while actually trying to wipe away the budding tears, she didn't even know why she was about to cry. She just didn't know...

_So why should she?_

The thought came, unbidden, in her mind.

Why should she cry if she didn't even know why? She was strong. She wasn't weak. Not... uncute.

For some reason, the thought made her angry. Rain clenched her teeth, fighting back tears, embracing the anger. An escape. She needed an escape to her sadness. And the anger greeted her as if it was an old friend.

She wasn't uncute! She wouldn't cry over some stupid unknown reason! Not her!

"Ah, Arien fight with pig-boy?"

The Amazon appeared on Rain's other side, her arms crossed, with a smile on her face.

"Shampoo Arien win. Is strongest male."

Rain decided that it was better to not answer her. For some reason, she felt uncomfortable around Ukyo and she didn't know why, but Shampoo... that was a different story. She knew that she didn't like the purple-haired girl. After all, she had done nothing but insult her since they met, not to mention try to attack her.

"Is not reason fight with pig-boy. Useless battle with obvious victor."

"You can't know that." Rain found herself saying, feeling that at least someone should stick up for the fanged boy.

"Maybe Ranma won't win this time." she said, trying to be fair, even though, for some reason, she felt that she knew deep inside that Ranma would win. Hoped. Was it friendship bias? But supposably, she knew the other boy too. Before... whatever had happened to her.

The purple-haired girl scoffed, and Ukyo laughed into her hand.

"You no is serious. Ranma always win."

Seeing their reactions, Rain felt sorry for Ryoga. Did no one cheer him on?

"Ranma-honey! Do your best!" Ukyo called out to the match, a big smile on her face. She turned to wink at Rain.

"Not that he needs the luck."

The fact that the exchange made it seem like Ukyo had some sort of deep bond with Ranma (and why wouldn't she, if they were engaged?), for some reason rubbed Rain the wrong way. Not just because it reminded her, uncomfortably, of that night where she cried alone on the porch, but because... it just didn't feel right for some reason.

Or maybe it was just because Ranma hadn't replied back to the girl, being too caught up in his sparring match with Ryoga. Rain shook her head again. She had to stop thinking like this. It was beginning to drive her crazy! What did she care if Ranma was engaged to someone? She hadn't even remembered him a few weeks ago! There was no way that she could have those sorts of feelings for a guy that she had just met! She wasn't... like that.

But as Rain looked up from the ground (which she realized she had been staring at again) to watch Ranma and his smiling, joking face as he fluidly moved and weaved around and out of the way of Ryoga's straightforward attacks, she began to doubt herself. Because she had begun to realize that, whether her brain could recognize him or not, somewhere, deep inside, she knew that he was familiar to her. And the more time she spent with him, the more she was beginning to think... that maybe... before she had lost her memories... she-

"What Pervert-girl staring at?"

The high-pitched voice of the purple-haired Amazon intruded on her thoughts, and Rain felt herself uncharacteristically more than just annoyed by the interruption. Even though Shampoo couldn't have known what she had been thinking of, what she might have been on the verge of remembering.

Rain turned to the girl, trying for an even tone.

"I don't care much for that nickname, Shampoo."

"Shampoo think fitting. Girl is pervert-girl, so Shampoo say is so."

Rain clenched her teeth. She didn't like what the Amazon was implying.

"I am no such thing."

"No lie."

The Amazon waved her hand in a dismissive manner.

"Shampoo know all too well."

"Well, who's the one who walks around naked? It certainly isn't me!"

"Kitchen-wrecker just jealous of Shampoo body." the girl pulled the skin below her eye with a finger and stuck out her tongue.

"Nya!"

Rain felt her face get warm, and she wasn't completely sure if it was rage, embarrassment, or a combination of the two.

Why did she have to put up with this grief? Shampoo just walked into her life, attacked her with no warning, stayed over, insulted her, and for what? She didn't remember anything, but far from having anything be explained to her, the Amazon felt that it was fine to just do as she pleased.

She was sick and tired of it!

Before she had realized what she was doing, she had clenched her hands in fists, her nails biting into her palms.

"What, Kitchen-wrecker angry at Shampoo?" the purple-haired girl taunted.

"No have guts to say to Shampoo face?"

The smirk on her lips was the last thing Rain saw before the sharp heat ran through her. And the next thing she knew, she had slapped that smug look right off the purple-haired girl's face.

-Shampoo-

The Amazon staggered briefly, more from shock than anything else. Then the fury kicked in. What did that weakling think that she was doing? She wanted to fight?_ Fine_.

Shampoo clenched her hand into a fist.

"That last thing girl ever do. You never touch Shampoo again." she growled. And she meant it. This girl had been given too many liberties. She should have dealt with her when she first met her. This time, Shampoo would not suffer the insult of a female outsider landing a blow on her.

She'd kill her.

-Rain/Akane-

She dodged the fist that had been aimed straight for her face and evaded to the side, having room since Ukyo had cleared out of the way. The girl had realized what was going on, but hadn't offered to help Rain out. Whether she was afraid to get in Shampoo's way or it was against her nature to step into a fight, Rain wasn't sure. But at the moment, she didn't care. She was mad, and she wanted the satisfaction of taking it out on Shampoo herself. She had never felt this way before to her knowledge, but it just felt... right. Still, the quickness of her anger would have probably scared her if she wasn't so preoccupied at the moment.

She turned as Shampoo launched another fist, grabbing the girl's wrist and pulling her forward more to get her off balance as she brought her knee up to hit the Amazon in the stomach.

But she was a hair's breath too slow. Shampoo flipped over, wrenching her wrist out of Rain's grip with a strong twist. Shocked by the girl's agility, Rain almost didn't react in time to dodge the girl's roundhouse. Their skin brushed slightly, and Rain felt something like a static shock. She landed on her feet a bit harder then she intended, surprised.

Her legs felt like... they were filled with electricity. Her body was practically buzzing.

Dismissing it as adrenaline and unwilling to get distracted, Rain charged her opponent.

Shampoo was ready for her, but Rain had begun to pick up her rhythm. Timing her moves to the girl's, she dodged, swiped, dodged again, and attacked, having calculated where Shampoo would be after her fake (but follow through) punch. And that's when it started. Growling from the unexpected hit, the Amazon charged her and, unwilling to back down, Rain took a second too long to dodge. The Amazon's fist was a second away from hitting her when she put her arms up in protection, sudden fear giving her a big shot of adrenaline, and she saw sparks.

Literal sparks.

The second Shampoo hit her, she felt a jolt. And then they both went flying.

-end chapter.

end chapter notations: Sorry that it took so ridiculously long to update this story. I have no excuses.


	12. A Jolt of Memory

Memory of Rain and Lightening Chapter Ten- nihogoneko- rated T (just in case)

Akane fanfic- I'll Remember; Lost Memory and Lightening (I call it an Akane fanfic because it revolves around Akane Tendo, mainly.)

Summary: A girl wakes up in a forest clearing, with no idea who she is. She walks to the nearest town, and no one recognizes her. But she stays there and starts to build a life there as she searches for herself. Now a boy has appeared, claiming to know her.

Disclaimer: I do not own Akane, Ranma, or any of the other Rumiko Takahashi characters from Ranma 1/2, nor do I own the storyline. Sadly, I'm just not that good.

Main Character List: Rain (Akane, who has lost her memory and is trying to regain it), Mrs. Smithy (the old woman who has given Akane a place to stay), Ranma (Akane's fiancé whocame looking for her and is trying to watch out for her and help her regain her memories), Shampoo, Ukyo and Ryoga (three mysterious people who seem to know Ranma and Rain. Ukyo is tricking rain into thinking that she is Ranma's only fiancée. Shampoo has gotten on Rain's nerves and has challenged her to a match.)

Now, on with the story...

-13-

Chapter Thirteen - A Jolt of Memory

previously in chapters...

_Growling from the unexpected hit, the Amazon charged her and, unwilling to back down, Rain took a second too long to dodge. The Amazon's fist was a second away from hitting her when she put her arms up in protection, sudden fear giving her a big shot of adrenaline, and she saw sparks._

_Literal sparks._

_The second Shampoo hit her, she felt a jolt. And then they both went flying._

now continuing with the story...

-Shampoo-

"Aiyaaaahhh!"

The Amazoness felt her body hit a painful barrier, as if she was struck by lightning, and then suddenly, she was soaring through the air.

_What the-_

Instinctively, she was on her feet before she had time to think about it, facing her opponent. But what she saw gave her pause.

That girl's body was... glowing?

She stared at her for a second, before dismissing it as a mere parlor trick meant to unnerve her. The Kitchen-Wrecker wasn't a strong opponent. She could not control her aura like Shampoo's Arien could. And any outsider woman was nothing compared to an Amazon female. She shook her head to dismiss the image and charged, confident that she would win.

A few minutes later though, Shampoo felt, sadly, ready to eat her own words.

This was impossible! Every move, every attack she tried, useless! The girl was learning at an abnormal speed! Every technique she tried was quickly countered and used against her. It was like she was fighting her Arien. But that was impossible. There was no way that the Kitchen-Wrecker Pervert-Girl was this good. She had already known that was absurd. _So why couldn't she land a hit?_

The Amazoness growled and charged her opponent again. No outsider woman would beat her! Never!

-Rain/Akane-

She had never concentrated so much on anything in her life. It was amazing her how she was able to keep up with the purple-haired girl. Not even a second after she saw an attack coming, her body was already moving to counter it. Still, she wasn't sure how long she could keep this up. Because they were both was moving too fast for her to do anything more than react, she was getting worried what would happen if she was just a millisecond too slow. Sure, she could keep up, but it felt like she couldn't control it. She wanted to attack back, but she was stuck dodging, evading and redirecting attacks instead. If only she could find an opening.

Shampoo was getting more desperate as time passed - or more angry. She could tell by the way her attacks were beginning to grow more vicious, and more dangerous in nature as the girl began aiming for vulnerable points on her body that you don't casually attack – like her neck and kidneys.

The Amazon lunged forward again, her fist heading towards her face, and Rain ducked to avoid it.

She twisted in her spot, seeing an opening on the girl's side, her arm and fist rising to meet Shampoo's body at the same time that the Amazon began turning to protect herself. Suddenly, a burst of strength, of... power shot through her.

Her hands crackled with electricity, but Rain didn't notice. She was too busy concentrating on the images that appeared in her head before she lost it like all the others, her fight with the Amazoness temporarily forgotten.

A forest.

The sensation of rain falling against her cheek and the feeling that she'd been sleeping for a while.

Rain, lightening.

Lightening, a... a storm.

Heat. A burning sensation. So much energy...

Falling. Darkness... Consciousness fading.

_Ranma... help me._

_Ranma… _

The pig-tailed martial artist's face appeared in her head. Ranma Saotome, her friend. Her… fiancé.

_Ranma! Help me!_

Rain, no, Akane, felt the ground give out underneath her, her body surging with a weird energy that she now recognized as real electricity. Powerful electricity now embedded in her body. It was exhilarating, yet she felt that she couldn't move. It was all too much for her. She opened her mouth to scream the only thing she could think of as she began to collapse.

-Ranma-

"Ranma!"

He knew that voice.

Ranma spun in his spot and saw Akane going down. She looked like she was in pain, sounded so frightened and lost, that he moved without thinking about it. In a flash he was by her side, trying to catch her as she fell.

"Akane? Akane!"

Her eyes looked like they were looking at something he couldn't see, and just as he reached her, a brilliant light surrounded her and his outstretched hand was hit by something that felt like a powerful electric shock.

"Ow!"

Akane just avoided crumplin to the ground, inches from him, her knees barely catching her fall. He wanted to go to her, but the field of light around her was too painful for him to get through.

"Akane!"

Afraid that she was suffering from the same feeling he had just experienced, he tried to reach out to her again, only to once more get shocked.

"Ow! Shit!"

It was ten times worse than anything he'd ever felt before. Touching the field, even for an instant, made him feel like his hand was going to burn to a crisp.

He had been so focused on Ryoga and sparring with him that he hadn't seen the two girls fight. His fight with the fanged martial artist had let him burn some nervous energy, but now he was ashamed of thinking of himself, leaving Akane open to an attack from Shampoo. He hadn't been watching her.

This was his fault.

-Akane-

A sharp pain in her head caused her to clutch her temples in an effort to relieve the pressure.

She couldn't deal with this. It was too soon. She wasn't ready yet. If she didn't do something soon… she'd burn up from the inside out.

Akane looked through tear-stained eyes at her fiancé. He was so close, yet so far. She knew that he was worried, but she couldn't control her new power enough for him to get near. He had done so much for her already, had been so kind to her when the lightning strike caused her to forget about everything. It had been the only thing protecting her brain from meltdown. She knew that she had to do it again. Even though it made her feel so alone. Even with him being so close to her.

She spared a short glance in Ukyo's direction. Having regained her memory, she knew what the okonomiyaki chef was trying to do. It made her angry, but she didn't have the control to deal with it now. She could barely handle Shampoo at the moment. But she had made a promise to herself in that one instant when her life had changed. And so Akane turned her attention back to Ranma, who had been so kind and wonderful, caring and understanding when she had been vulnerable and lost. She didn't want to lose him just yet.

She felt the tears run down her face, fresh and warm. But these were not from the pain. These were in anticipation of what she'd have to do.

Once again, Akane closed her eyes and made the choice to give up all of her memories, in return for saving her life.

-Rain-

Rain's body crumpled to the ground, the light around her dissipating into nothing. Ranma immediately started forward towards her, but the girl surprised him by standing up like nothing was wrong.

"Wh...at?"

Rain looked down at her hands, which had pushed her up from the ground. The light was gone from her body but she could feel it coursing just beneath the surface of her skin. Like a living thing.

She clenched her hand into a fist and watched as small sparks danced long the surface of her skin. Strangely, the sight didn't scare her. Or maybe she was too numb from that weird jolt earlier to be afraid. Still…

Rain relaxed her hand, but slowly, and observed the sparks spread out so that her whole hand was covered in tiny lights, making it glow. She thought of the flash of light as she examined her skin, noting that it wasn't burned or bothered by the sparks, except for a slight tingle.

This… if this was electricity like she suspected, and she could control it…

She glanced at Shampoo, who was glaring at her, fists clenching and unclenching, looking ready to continue their brawl.

If this was workable… then she could use it.

-Ukyo-

The okinomiyaki chef couldn't believe it. Akane had just gotten struck by lightning. On a clear day. _And she was standing up like nothing was wrong_.

What had _happened_ to her? It wasn't just that she couldn't remember who she was. This Akane was… different. And Ukyo was no longer sure how well her plan would work if the rules of the game changed.

Shampoo, who was obviously less impressed, attacked the girl again with new vigor, maneuvering around Ranma to try to knock Akane off her feet. However, the girl was fast (faster than Ukyo could ever remember her being, come to think of it), and she moved back and out of Shampoo's reach. It also put her further away from Ranma, who was looking as if he was rooted to the spot.

Ukyo watched Ranma watch Akane and again felt the same jealousy fill her that it did when she had learned that the two of them had been alone together without anyone else except the old lady.

She looked at the short-haired girl. Akane was completely focused on Shampoo, and she was fighting as if she had a new purpose. A determination that hadn't been there before was now etched into the lines of her face, and she looked to be concentrating hard on something. Of course, that was probably because she was facing Shampoo. The Amazon hussy wasn't all that strong compared to Ukyo, but then again, Akane wasn't that strong either. Ukyo already knew who would win, even with Akane being so weird recently. She was still just Akane. There was no way she could beat Shampoo.

-Rain-

She focused on the tingling in her body while trying not to lose focus of her fight with Shampoo. If she could just get the electricity to stimulate her muscles enough to become faster than the Amazoness, she might have a better chance of landing a hit.

She spared a quick glance at Ranma, who was staring at her with a strange look on his face.

Did he know about this… energy coursing through her body? But he had never mentioned anything like it before, and she couldn't remember Ranma ever lying to her.

She barely dodged a fist aimed for her face, and Rain turned her full attention back to her opponent. Now was not the time to get distracted. Not if she wanted to remain in one piece.

The purple-haired girl aimed for her nose again, and Rain began to feel her temper shorten. On the third attempt, she clenched her jaw and fist simultaneously, and struck the second she saw Shampoo's shoulder during her follow-through.

She felt the sudden energy increase in her arm a second before she made contact with the Amazoness' side.

For the second time that day, Shampoo was struck with a shock of lightening. Except that this time. Rain was prepared for it and braced against the impact. Still, it took a lot of effort

The Amazoness leapt to her feet as quick as she was able, wincing only slightly as the electricity continued to run its course through her body.

"You-!"

Shampoo began rushing forward, fist once again raised, only to have Ranma step in between them.

"Okay. That's enough."

The purple-haired martial artist growled and tried to step around him, but Ranma anticipated it and stepped with her.

"I mean it, Shampoo. Enough is enough. Either stop it or go home."

The firmness of his voice gave her pause, and Rain risked looking over at him to find that his face was set, his mouth in a hard line that stated that he would tolerate no arguments.

Her opponent glared at him for a awhile, but when it was obvious that Ranma wasn't backing down, she made a sound and turned away.

"Hmph. Shampoo no want to fight Kitchen-Wrecker anyway. Already know that Shampoo is best."

-Ranma-

He sat alone in his room later that day contemplating everything that happened. Something had changed between today and yesterday. He just didn't know what.

Dinner had been interesting. Akane had really pigged out on food. Not literally – she ate with the same manners as always, but the quantity had increased.

In fact, she ate like he did after a hard day working out, like she had burned a lot of energy. It was understandable, since she had fought with Shampoo earlier that day, but she had done things like that before, and had never eaten that much afterwards. And speaking of the fight…

He sighed as he put his hands behind his head. He could have sworn, if just for an instant, that when Akane had looked at him from the cloud of light, that she was seeing him. Really seeing him. Like she knew who he was.

He closed his eyes and turned over to his side. No, he must've been imagining it. Hoping so hard that he saw what he wanted to see. Because if that was true, then that meant that something was wrong. Really wrong. And that Akane's amnesia might not have been an accident.

- end chapter.


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